A scent of hope
by TheOneTrueBear
Summary: Some things can't be done over the phone. She finds that against all remaining sanity she has to go to him. She won't stay long. She'll tell him how sorry she is and if he'll let her she'll hold him, then she'll get the hell out of there and try and do what she should have done years ago, forget him. After hearing about his daughter's death Caroline visits Klaus in NOLA
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I cannot for the life of me remember what was going on in mystic falls at the end of season 1 of the originals. After writing the first part of this it occurred to me Damon might be in prison world, and hence not available for his cameo here. Anyway i decided not to care because a little bit of Damon is always welcome.**

"Seriously Elena it's no big deal" she's trying to get away with the minimum fuss, trying to sell the inconsequentiality of it. No big deal, don't ask, don't question, I'll be home before you know it. She's selling it, casual and confident, and already bored by prospect. It's just a chore, an obligation, and no big deal.

Elena's buying it too, because Elena is good and trusting and genuine. Elena never ever sells anything. So Elena buys everything. She watches her friend's gentle eyes swirl in soft acceptance and knows she's home free.

"Blondie, seriously?" Damon, appearing in the doorway with glass in hand, humourless mimicry on his kiss me lips. Damon never buys anything, presumably because he hasn't told the truth in the best part of two centuries.

She shoots him a hard look, "back off" it says, "mind your business". His eyes narrow, the way they do when he's readying himself for a fight but perhaps there is a hardness in hers, or more likely a desperation, that makes him tilt his head and concede. He's not complex, not really, but even Damon has layers and he surprises her with a crooked smile and a nod that Elena misses.

She hugs them both as she leaves and its Damon's turn to be surprised by the silent thank you in her tightening arms.

"Urgh, ok, I better get this over with" she acts it out for Elena's benefit as she leaves and ignores Damon's pensive frown. "I love you"

….

The drive to New Orleans is hot and uncomfortable and interminable but she's happy enough to take the time, it gives her a chance to decide what she will do when she arrives, what she will say. Hours later the road still blurs past her and she has no more clue what she will say than when she drove away from the Salvatore boarding house with her worried best friend fading in her rearview mirror

….

It isn't hard to find his house, the French quarter is lousy with supernaturals and the story of the summer is the only one on anyone's lips. The originals have gone to ground, entombed in their grief, the once vibrant Mikaelson mansion now a darkened mausoleum of mourning.

Everyone is afraid. The city has an air of terrified expectation, of calm panicked inevitability. The hybrid mourns behind those brooding walls and all of New Orleans is still and terrified because he will only grieve like this for so long. One day, later or probably sooner, he will throw open the shutters, unbar the door and step out into the city again. The city that stole his child from him.

She goes to the shrine, its and odd collection of nothings that mean everything to the few that placed them there. Photos, flowers, a necklace dangling limply, a bottle of beer, a red ribbon, a card with a picture of a winged cherub. Her heart slows painfully at the sight, "Baby Mikaelson" it reads. Klaus' child depicted as a miniature angel, is that how they saw the child she wonders, a savior, heaven sent? Perhaps they did, perhaps it was, she supposes now they'll never know.

It's late by the time she walks trembling fearlessly into the mansion's courtyard. She's spent the time wandering the streets, preparing for this. She still has no idea what she will say.

She doesn't call out. Even she who's never been afraid of shattering a silence can't bring herself to unleash her shrill greeting into the cloying air of the courtyard. What would she call out anyway? "Hello" is too irreverent, his name far too punishing. So she walks tentatively over the cobbles and up the stairs the silence in the place presses down on her shoulders like a heavy load, slowing her steps and quickening her breath. A human would take this silence for emptiness but she can feel him, he's here, hidden and watching and unknowable but he's here and her senses buzz with the realness of him.

Finally she stops, stands on the balcony and casts half interested eyes over the covered furniture and shuttered windows. "I'm sorry," she whispers. Now that she's here it seems ridiculous to have worried about the right words for this. There are no words but these. "I'm so sorry" she repeats because she is. Maybe its true, what the world believes, that he is the last creature on the planet deserving a chance of redemption, but god knows he needs it and she is so very sorry, for him and perhaps deep down for herself, that he has lost that chance.

This is all she came to say, it's up to him now, she'll wait a few moments then she'll say it one more time and then she'll leave. She half hopes that that's how it will go, she half hopes it's not. It's not and she's more than half glad.

"Thank you Caroline," he murmurs softly from somewhere to her right and a little behind her. It's such a human exchange, so ordinary that you could almost believe they were no different from the living, but if they were human he would have had to be intimately close for her to hear his whispered thanks, they are not and she's glad.

"I..." she begins without looking at him but he stops her before she can repeat herself again. His hands on her upper arms, he's right behind her now without her having heard him move and despite everything his body calls to her like it always did and she moves the tiniest fraction into him.

"Thank you" he repeats and she spins in slow motion to face him, his grip loosening to allow the movement but not releasing her completely. She can't meet his eyes and she can't think of anything to say so she leans in close, lays her head on his chest and wraps her arms around his waist.

She expects him to resist the humanness of it, to hold himself stiff and reserved against her comfort but he doesn't' he melds into her and buries his face in her neck with a sigh. "Caroline" he murmurs and she swears she feels his lips form a smile against her skin. His body thrums against her with an almost excitement that's makes no sense against the city's hushed whispers of brooding, menacing, grief. He pulls away and she's certain his eyes do flash with something almost joyfully excited as his lips part to speak.

"Niklaus!" Elijah's distinctive voice is sharper than she's heard it, laced with warning and reprimand. He nods in her direction "Miss Forbes"

She disentangles herself from Klaus who steps away from her and folds in on himself as if without her touch he is retreating again behind a wall of sorrow. "Elijah" She greets politely. "I just…" she shakes her head slightly, thrown by his unnatural stillness. The others, Elena at least, trusted Elijah, bought into his reputation of nobility and honour, she never did. To her he was always too contained, everything about him too carefully hidden. She'd always been more inclined to trust Klaus, though God knows she wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, at least he wore his villainy, like his love, on his sleeve.

"I just came to say how sorry I am." She draws herself up and steadies her voice. It's easier to elaborate her condolement now it isn't just the two of them. "I know we're not friends and everyone was pretty freaked out by the hybrid miracle baby, but no one wanted this."

It's blunt but its honest and she's always chosen the honest over the tactful.

"Thank you Miss Forbes. My brother and I appreciate you making the trip" she raises and eyebrow at him speaking for his brother and glances in Klaus' direction but the hybrids face is turned away and she can't find his eyes. "Will you be staying long in New Orleans?" Elijah asks the question in his same inscrutable way but she senses a subtle dismissal in the question.

"Umm" she looks again to Klaus but he is still watching his own shoes. "I guess just a night or two" Elijah silently holds her eyes and she gets the urge to run from his ancient gaze. "I better go actually, find somewhere to check in"

"Stay here" Klaus speaks to her but his eyes or on his brother and there's a childish challenging insolence in them that an only child like her can't fully understand. "We couldn't turn a lady out on the street now could we brother"

Elijah's eyes twitch in what might pass for annoyance on his impassive features. "Quite" he agrees with a hard look at Klaus before turning to her. "There are many rooms, please do make yourself at home"

…

She is studying a painting hanging in her room when he finally seeks her out, trying to decide if he painted it or not. She realizes she has no way of knowing, she doesn't know his style, his preferences of colour or medium. Aside from a snowflake in dark oils she's never paid much attention to his art, a pencil sketch still hidden in her jewelry box not withstanding.

"Tell me Caroline" He lounges against the doorframe in that way beautiful men always seem to have. Damon is a master of it, that languid arrogant ease; like they're so sexy things should just be there to hold them up. She realizes her mind is drifting and wrenches her attention away from the feline lines of his body and back to his sad guarded eyes. "Did you see anything of our fair city before coming here?"

"Yeah" she replies. "I went all over the French Quarter trying to track you down, heard all the stories. For a man who hasn't been seen in over a month you sure are the name on everyone's lips"

"Ah" he looks almost amused for an instant before he schools his face into impassiveness.

"They're afraid of you" it comes out judgmental, because that's who she is no matter how much she means to be sympathetic. "They're all just out there waiting for you to come out of mourning and rip everyone's heart out"

Now he does look amused in a grim eyed sort of way that chills her blood. "Well they needn't worry, they won't have to wait much longer"

"You don't have to do it?" Caroline states boldly, she has never feared him as much as she should.

"Yes" he says slowly pushing off the wall and taking a couple of meandering steps into the room. "I do"

She sighs because she can't judge his pain, can't begin to comprehend the loss. The one bright light in a thousand years of darkness snuffed out before he ever saw it shine, it turns her stomach to churning water to think of it. But she still has to try to change his mind.

"It won't change anything" She tells him as if he didn't know. "They're not all to blame Klaus. Your baby was innocent, don't kill more innocents in her name."

"Sorry love but I have to" He smirks. "Reputation to maintain and all"

"Reputation? Seriously!" her voice rises in disbelieving anger. "How can you be thinking about your fricking reputation right now? How can it matter at all now?"

"Now more than ever" His ire rises to meet hers but his voice holds more than anger, there's enough fear in it to give her pause

She takes a deep calming breath and tries to understand him. "I get it. All that matters is being king of the city, being the biggest and badest of them all right?" he watches her with stormy eyes and she ploughs on despite the feeling that her words are trite and weightless. "But come on you know you have more than that, you still have Elijah, you have at least one or two friends" she'd visited the bartender had seen the concern in her soulful human eyes when she'd asked her about Klaus. If she includes herself, which she reluctantly must, he has at least two. She touches him against her better judgment, takes his hand in her own. "You still have hope"

He lets out a bark of laughter and his eyes meet hers with a sudden dancing brightness. She's struck again by the thought that he has something to tell her but he cocks his head a little as if listening and his jaw clenches with annoyance.

He nods and lifts their joined hands to his lips. "Goodnight Caroline" and he is gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: So yes I just watched the end of originals season 1 and its clear that Damon and Bonnie were in the prison world at this time. Clearly Caroline would not leave Elena at this point for anything so we are going to have to pretend like we haven't noticed and just accept that this is an originals centric fic and all is well in mystic falls .**

 **Ok now we're all up to speed on my boob we'll crack on with the tale. Feel free to review, you know if the mood takes you :-P**

 **Chapter2.**

She slowly draws in air and tries to calm her racing heart. His hearing is keener than hers.

"Your feelings cloud your judgment little brother." Elijah says and she knows she's right to be taking the mad risk of attempting to eavesdrop on the originals in their own home.

He scoffs. "You're imagination's running away with you big brother"

"Oh I doubt that" She can imagine Elijah straightening his cuffs while his brother languidly swirls a glass of scotch. "Were you not about to reveal our secret to Miss Forbes just thirty minutes ago?"

She stiffens at his words, pictures Klaus doing the same. The silence lasts so long she wonders if Klaus has left but then she hears him respond and not with the denial she expects. "She wouldn't betray us." He tells his brother and there's so much conviction in it, conviction in her, that her throat clogs with emotion.

"Would she not?" Elijah asks immediately. "She has proven herself many times to be our enemy. To be your enemy"

She thinks Klaus will defend her but it's Elijah who speaks again. "She is loyal to the doppelganger and the Salvatores, to Tyler Lockwood." Elijah, like his brother has a way of making Tyler's name sound distasteful. "All of whom you have given good reason to seek to bring harm to our family"

There is another long silence and then she hears someone move to the door. "You may be right Elijah" Klaus sounds uncharacteristically subdued as he concedes. "No matter. She'll no doubt be in a keen to leave us soon enough"

She sneaks back to her room and lies on the bed running the brothers' conversation over in her head. It's a peculiar sensation to realize that from another perspective you might be the bad guy, but she is in no doubt that to Elijah that is definitely her role. She conspired, albeit unwittingly, to kill their younger brother after all.

Elijah doesn't trust her. Ok she gets that. But what is it he doesn't trust her with? She'd known it, she'd seen it in Klaus' eyes, he'd been on the cusp of spilling their big freaking family secret until he'd heard something, probably Elijah lurking. She can feel her natural obsessives rise she is going to have to find out. Caroline Forbes does not just let people keep secrets, she never has. Elena and Damon and their creepy sire bonded sex shame are proof of that.

She's wondering how she's going to get to the bottom of the mystery when she hears someone leaving the compound she glides to the window and sees Elijah striding briskly away. Without the suited one hovering she might be able to get Klaus to let something slip, she quickly checks her hair, pinches her lips to a natural redness and rushes from the room.

She finds him in the drawing room staring at the open pages of a leather bound book, he's obviously engrossed, he notices her late and startles slightly. The Original Hybrid caught off guard, must be a hell of a story she thinks wryly. The book shuts with a loud snap and he moves it to his side almost as if wanting to hide it from her. She pretends not to notice.

"Hey" she greets and he smiles boyishly in response but doesn't speak. "I thought I was mega tired, but" she shrugs "can't sleep"

"Well that's quite the predicament, love" he nods in faux seriousness and she feels herself smile at the familiar endearment. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Hmmm" she came here for answers but he looks relaxed and almost playful and she can't bring herself to drive that away. But still there's an opportunity here. "How about a bedtime story" She nods to the book he's surreptitiously laid on the table beside him.

His jaw ticks lightly but he covers it quickly and makes a sweeping gesture with his arm towards the chaise opposite. She ignores it and sits beside him, drawing one leg up underneath her so she can turn towards him and lay her head on her own arm. "What we reading?"

He smirks and pushes the picks the book up, glancing briefly at its worn cover. "Well love, as much faith as I have in modern American education I'm not sure this will be to your tastes"

"Hey" she swings at his shins lightly with her free foot. "I can so to do the classics"

He rises and his thumb caressing the leather binding and moves away from her. "Poetry" he looks up at her under his lashes, lips pursed in a pout that is almost feminine in it's supple fullness and she feels the familiar stir of desire that has accompanied being with him for a far longer time than she'd admit. "Very romantic stuff, quite inappropriate for mere friends." He pauses gauging her blush before slipping the leather bound book back onto the shelf. "Also it's in the original greek"

She huffs feeling out maneuvered, even if she's unsure he's aware of the game. "Well pick out something suitably shallow then" She bites out cattily around the taste of insecurity flooding her mouth.

A flash and he's beside her again a book on his knee, his hand on her cheek. "Don't do that" he holds her gaze with his like a vice and tells her with his eyes what she would already know if she had half the self confidence she tries to project. After a long heavy moment he seems to decide that she has understood and releases her in favour of opening the book and beginning to read.

"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning."

She laughs and snuggles into the cushions as he reads, his accent caressing the familiar words making them more charming than ever. It can't be a coincidence and for once she doesn't care how creepy it is that he knows her favourite children's book she just closes her eyes and listens and falls asleep long before Toad mends his ways.

…

She wakes to the trill of her phone and a message from Elena asking if she's found Klaus and when she'll be back. She fires off a non-committal reply and stretches languidly in the soft cotton of the bed. It takes her a second to remember she hadn't fallen asleep here. Looking down she takes in the crumpled state of her clothes and her shoes sitting neatly together beside the bed.

Frowning slightly she imagines him laying her down in the bed and carefully unbuckling the tricky straps without disturbing her, a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth and she clamps down on it mercilessly. His sweetness is a lie she must remember that, it is a mirage in the desert of his wickedness. She sees it because she wants to see it, because she has always wanted to despite all she knows. Their connection he called it, that spark leaping between them, that burn of desire that is more than sex, more than friendship, less than love. She had told herself that their tryst in the forest purged it, scratched the itch, banished the demon, she always knew it was a lie.

There are raised voices in the depths of the house, Klaus and his brother arguing again. She follows the sounds until she hears Klaus storm away then she follows him. She finds him in his studio his brush moving in sharp jerky movements over the canvas, his shoulders rigid. He must know she's there but he doesn't turn around, the picture is a blur of darkness; formless and angry. She fears him more looking at this picture than she has since he first rolled into Mystic Falls bringing death, blood, and sacrifice with him.

Impatient as she is she circles the easel so that she can face him, her heart jumps in shock and her fear evaporates because he, the almighty hybrid, Klaus fricking Mikaelson, is crying. Sure she's seen those pretty eyes fill before, he's remarkably emotional for a creature who has seen every horror a thousand years of human and supernatural history can offer and done much worse. But this is different, his face is soaked in pain, the stubble glistening with the outpouring of his sorrow and she is too compassionate a creature to resist it.

"Oh God" she murmurs and moves towards him, burning brightly with her empathy. "Klaus"

His jaw clenches and he won't meet her eyes, she is witness to his weakness and she knows he hates it. But this is no time to indulge his pride, this is the pain she came all this way to console him in. "Klaus" She takes him in her arms and this time he does resist pulling back and turning away. "No" she commands and draws him back by the arm. "Ah ah no way. Just," she sighs, "Just come here ok?"

He does with a sort of reluctant desperation and she feels his tears against her throat. Awkwardly she turns her head to kiss him where she can, catching him behind the ear, tasting his hair. He moves too, raising his head till his cheek ghosts over hers and her kiss falls on his earlobe. The next lands on his cheek as their noses brush and then her lips hover over his. There's madness thrumming between them now but she's still sane enough not to go there just yet. She moves past his lips, breathes in as he breathes out, and lays another closed mouth kiss on his other cheek.

She almost asks what's wrong against his skin but how stupid that would be. His heart is broken with loss and those flashes of normalcy she has seen in him are the illusion, mere specks floating on the surface of the deep well of his grief. Perhaps her presence has distracted him in those fleeting moments from this, perhaps that is what she has to offer him and so she kisses him. Slants her mouth over his, forcefully pushing his lips apart, demanding he open his mouth, if not his heart, to her. His hands come to her waist and pull her in. Grief sex; she remembers Tyler's cajoling. What a cliché; a horny high school boy trying to derail an emotional girls reservations.

Klaus is no amorous child. Even in just her kitten heels they are almost of a height, he is lean and sinewy in her arms, nothing like the bulky all American jock she's culturally pre-programmed to admire and yet his power can physically eclipse any shape or size of man. They pull apart and she searches his face, he is ancient and invincible and he is beautiful. He is broken and he is lost and she wants more than anything to fix the unfixable. She moves to kiss him again but he stops her with his hands on her shoulders and a rueful smile.

"Come now love" he moves away from her gathering his brushes and dropping them into jars of cleaning alcohol. "You must be hungry. I have to say I'm surprised you're such a slug-a-bed, had you pegged for an early riser"

She's dumb founded by his sudden change, shakes her head in confusion but takes his arm when he offers it and lets him lead her through the silent corridors to the drawing room where he'd read to her. Elijah is there sipping coffee. "Good morning Miss Forbes" he greets her "I trust you have not too been a victim of my brother's latest tantrum. I myself shall recover of course, however I fear that his rather fine gothic landscape is beyond saving"

"Yes well" Klaus stalks around his brother. "I was finding it a little gay, it didn't suit my mood"

Elijah tilts his head, "No I suppose it would not." He turns to Caroline, who had just been considering vacating the room before the brothers' bickering turned ugly. "Do you have any plans for the day Miss Forbes"

She shrugs and retrieves a beignet from a tray on the Queen Anne table against the wall. "I thought I might take a witch tour" Klaus hands her a cup of coffee and raises and eyebrow. She fixes him with a challenging look. "I figure I'd better before someone slaughters them all"

He smirks. "Good thinking love, I hear they're a very informative. Do mention to your tour guide that I'm beginning to feel a lot more lively would you"

She narrows her eyes at him and scoffs. He is repulsive to her now, the vulnerability of the morning, the sweetness of the night before are gone and here he is in his truest form, Niklaus Mikaelson the original hybrid, merciless and remorseless. "I would not actually" she tosses her hair defiantly. "Vague ominous threats are your thing. I'll just sight see with the other tourists"

"Suit yourself" he gives her a crooked endearing smile that makes her skin crawl. "If you need a tour guide love, no one knows this city better than I." He pauses melodramatically and she rolls her eyes. "I did build it after all"

"Please ignore my brother Miss Forbes" she'd almost forgotten Elijah so focused is she on Klaus. "His moods are even more erratic than usual"

She pops a little pastry in her mouth and smiles tightly at Elijah before turning smartly on her heel and flouncing from the room. A shower and a change of clothes later and she's ready to explore New Orleans. She figures she'll start at Rousseau's.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hi, what can I get you?" the bartender, Camile according to her nametag, is distracted by wiping the polished wood of the bar and doesn't recognise her immediately.

"Bourbon please" she asks, "maybe a little information on the side"

Camille's head snaps up suspiciously. "You. You were here yesterday asking questions about Klaus" she squares her shoulders defiantly. "Whatever you are, whatever you want you won't get it from me"

"Hey I'm not the bad guy" she assures the blonde. "I'm just looking for some answers, that's all"

"Look elsewhere. I don't rat out my friends"

"Friends?" She quirks an eyebrow in amusement, "with Klaus Mikaelson?"

"Yes, he does have one. Please leave"

She likes Camille she decides, she is brave and defiant and loyal. She wonders what Klaus has done for her to inspire this loyalty. "He has two." She tells her seriously. "I'm staying at the compound with him and Elijah, I came when I heard about the baby."

"I'm surprised he let anyone in, the doors haven't exactly been open to visitors lately." The blonde's eyes are appraising but her tone is no longer suspicious.

"Well he knows better than to shut me out" she smiles. "I'm stubborn"

Camille laughs and relaxes. "Good" she says. "He needs someone" she shakes her head and looks a little hurt. "He sent me away"

"Look Camille, I'm on his side, I'm just trying to find out what's going on with him." She decides that with Camillie full disclosure is the way to go. "He and Elijah are lying about something, something important and I want to find out what it is"

"Cami, please, I hate Camille. Only Klaus calls me that" she smiles. "I'm not sure I can help you. I went to see him after..." she trails off, pained by the words. "He told me I couldn't be there, that it wasn't safe, too many demons bent on destroying him and everything he cares about." She shrugs fondly. "You know Klaus, very melodramatic"

She pushes aside the jealousy that stirs at Cami's words, but she can't help wonder about the nature of their relationship. Cami is beautiful in a sophisticated understated way, strong featured and cleared skinned. Perhaps Klaus is moving on here in New Orleans. It doesn't matter she tells herself, it's good if he is. He can be Camille's problem then rather than hers, but first she is going to get to the bottom of this.

"So here's my plan." She tells Cami. "I am going to find out what Klaus is hiding. I'm going to call him out on it and I am going to stop him slaughtering half of New Orleans."

Cami smiles slow and wide. "Good plan"

…

Wandering back towards the Mikaelson's compound she takes some time to try appreciate what it is Klaus loves so much about this city. It's history and culture, its recklessness and magic.

Her time with Camille has left her unsettled and introspective. She had gone looking for answers and found only questions. Questions that she has never before thought to ask herself.

The afternoon had passed in broken story telling. She had asked the bartender to start at the beginning and so she had, with a hundred dollar bill laid on her bar. And between interruptions to wipe tables and pour drinks she has heard more than the story of the Originals' battle for New Orleans and their ultimate tragedy. She had heard the story of Cami and Klaus.

She could tell that the other blonde is at least half way in love with him, from what she heard about how he has treated her she thinks perhaps he is half way in love with her too. She is jealous of and thankful to this woman all at once, because Cami has done what it never occurred to her to do, even when she hissed her self-righteous hypocrisy at him all that time ago wearing the dress he gave her telling him why he didn't connect with people.

She had been right of course, he never has tried to understand people but she wonders when someone last tried to understand him. Until Camille, with her psych degree and her blazing compassion she wonders if anyone ever has. Certainly she has not. She has condemned his evil even while she has excused her own, and Stephan's and Alaric's and God the list goes on and on.

They've all taken life and they've all had their reasons and their excuses and their regret but she never once granted he could have the same. Oh yes she had wished in the shame of her desire for him that she could forget his crimes but she never before thought to try and understand them.

She tells herself it's all down to those crucial first impressions. That while she met a body-jumping psychopath out to sacrifice her best friend Cami met a hot guy with a "cute accent", a hundred dollar tip, and troubled eyes.

Moreover she came to know a broken soul desperate for understanding. The tale of Cami's time enthralled to his compulsion leaves a bitter taste crawling up her throat. Sure she knows it was wrong of Klaus to try and control Cami and all props to her for breaking free, but she can't help compare it to her own time yoked by Damon's mesmeric gaze.

Because Klaus had compelled Camille only to listen to him and do with his story what she would. He'd tried to compel away her pain to compel her to safety. Misguided and so so wrong but done, for the most part, out of admiration for her.

Damon had demand sex and blood and servitude, hidden scars and promises of death to come. Even now she remembers the terror boiling beneath her obedience. Perhaps, an ever-present neurosis whispers in her ear, they each got what they deserved. Cami is after all far more worthy a creature than the shallow control freak Damon abused so badly. Or perhaps Damon is just a dick and Klaus, despite everything terrible in him, is a gentleman and a romantic.

She veers away from her destination and walks another loop around the block. The rest of the story needs some thought too. Haley languishes in the Bayou, more beast than human her heartbreak so painful that even the agony of the transformation is welcome respite. The witches conspire with the werewolves that remain outside the city. The vampires are gone and the Guerrera wolves with their magic rings rule the city even as their top bitch unravels in expectation of Klaus' revenge.

She can't understand what he's waiting for. What Haley, with her new hybrid strength and just rage, is waiting for? To be honest, despite her good intentions to save the denizens of New Orleans from Klaus, she's ready to hunt down Francesca Guerrera and rip her apart herself for what her wolves did to Klaus' child. Something is holding them back and she can't guess what.

She'd asked around the Quarter, in the cauldron and on the streets but no one had wanted to talk. She'd even crossed the river searching, despite realizing that it was a foolishly dangerous endeavor, for this Marcel, who seems at once to be Klaus' sworn enemy and closest friend. But she hadn't found him and she hadn't found any answers.

The mansion is deathly silent when she returns the drawing room peacefully empty. Her eyes sweep the room, landing on the bookshelf and she remembers the book Klaus had seemed to wish to hide from her. She shouldn't pry, but its about the only vague lead she has so she searches for it, feels her heart rate rocket and her movements become rushed and jerky as she riffles through the books.

At last she finds it and pulls it open, poetry just like he said, Greek just like he said. Maybe she imagined it. She sighs and moves to return the book but as she does something slips a little from between the pages and nudges her fingers.

Delicately she pulls the loose sheet free and turns it over. It is a sketch similar enough to the one she can't bear to throw away for her to know Klaus drew it. The sleeping features tug at her heart, smooth rounded cheeks tiny upturned nose, parted rosebud lips. Tears fill her eyes, the face on the page is heartbreakingly beautiful and heartbreaking too is the love with which it has been drawn.

She's ghosting a finger, not quite touching, over the page, tracing the outline of the face wonderingly when Elijah's voice startles her. "Miss Forbes" she jumps guiltily clasping the sketch to her chest.

"Elijah, Jesus you scared me"

He doesn't speak, just fixes her with a steady gaze and takes the drawing from her, returning it carefully to its place and slipping the book back onto the shelf.

"Miss Forbes" He begins after a few silent moments that feel like an eternity to her. "Please be so kind as to explain what you are doing here?"

"I" she can't help but sound guilty as she fumbles for an explanation. "I just… Klaus was reading this, I just wondered what it was and I saw the picture. And…" she swallows hard. "Is that her? When did he draw it? I thought the witches took her straight after they killed Haley"

"Ah yes" Elijah runs a finger over the spines of the books lining the wall. "I heard about your interview with Miss O'Connoll, as well as your investigations in the Quarter and beyond." His eyes narrow as he settles them on her. "I wonder what it is you are looking for."

"Are you spying on me?" She asks outraged and more than a little fearful.

"I most certainly am" he moves in closer and he looks as threatening as any of his less genteel siblings. "My brother may trust you Miss Forbes but I do not. You are clearly searching for something and I would like to know what."

She trembles. "I don't know what you're talking about"

His hand slams down on the table beside her with a loud starling noise and she jumps. "Do not play games with me Caroline" he drops the formality and she is scared of him now right down in the pit of her stomach. "I will protect my family against any threat. I will protect Niklaus from anyone who would seek to manipulate him. So I ask you again what is it that you want?"

"Seriously?" she is scared yes but she's also offended and she's never had a very good brain-mouth filter. "Where do you get off? I am not the bad guy"

"You are our enemy Miss Forbes, or at the very least a friend to our enemies. You come to our home to spy on us, approach our allies for information, seek out our enemies on the other side of the river" He tilts his head. "So forgive me if I am disinclined to agree with you as to who is, in fact, the 'bad guy'"

She swallows its all true, she is, or she should be, their enemy. Most of her friends would certainly see any opportunity to be rid of Elijah and his family as a gift horse. But she doesn't and she isn't. She doesn't sleep with her enemies no matter how hot they are and when she'd wrapped her legs around Klaus in the forest in Mystic Falls she threw a pieces of herself in with him and by extension with his family.

"I just want to help," she says simply.

He tilts his head and she can't tell if he believes her so she ploughs on. "I want to help him and I can't do that if he's lying to me. So yes I talked to Cami and to those witches. Because maybe Klaus would tell me himself but he can't because you're always lurking, and you won't let him."

The sudden accusation in her tone seems to amuse him for a moment and she sees a delicate line appear at the corner of his mouth before his face is smooth again.

"I'm sure my brother appreciates the sentiment but the best way to help him is to leave him to his mourning." His hand slips into his trouser pocket and he smiles coldly. "Niklaus has all the support he needs in his family and in his dear friend Camille. There is no need for you to trouble yourself any longer"

She is about to protest but he speaks again. "I think it would be best if you left immediately. I will give Niklaus your apologies for leaving without saying goodbye"

"I'm not going anywhere"

"I believe you are. You have friends and family in Mystic Falls who count on you for protection, it would be a tragedy if some harm befell them while you were away."

He moves to the door leaving her speechless in the face of his words. "Just to be clear Miss Forbes this a threat. Be gone before my brother returns"

...

 **A/N. No Klaus in this chapter, sorry, but I wanted to set the scene with Camille and I love working with Elijah, his voice is so much fun to play with especially when he's being his own special brand of badass.**

 **So feedback... Don't make me beg, it wouldn't be dignified :-)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N wow, oh wow oh wow!**

 **Thanks for the reviews for chapter 3 guys, looks like opinion was divided on Elijah kicking Caroline out.**

 **Personally I like Elijah scary and ruthless, the line "To be clear this is a threat" is lifted from season 2 when Elijah was being particularly badass and genteel (also sexy, very sexy). I see no reason for him to trust Caroline given what Klaus has done to pretty much everyone she cares about especially Tyler. So i'm going to stand by mean Elijah for the time being. although I loved this review from anoymous**

You are ridiculous. Elijah would never behave like that. Single most stupid Story ever. Go and ruin something else.

 **I love that they care even if they hate it, who wants to please all the people all the time? :-) I am open to suggestion as to what I should go off and ruin next :-)**

 **Another common reviewer question was a concerned cry of "This isn't Klamille is it?"**

 **And to that I say no, no and thrice no. I don't hate Cami and she's a fixture in Klaus' Originals cannon so she's not to be ignored but Klaroline is how i will be going because if i am going to toy with Klaus in my fanfic universe he is going to get his first choice.**

 **Onward with the yarn!**

Chapter 4

She doesn't have much choice but leave. Klaus isn't around and Elijah is seriously scary right now. She can't risk her friends and she certainly can't risk her mother. So she throws her cloths into her suitcase and scribbles him a note.

 _Klaus,_

 _Your asshole brother kicked me out. He thinks I'm out to get you or something. I'm not but I'm done with his threats and I'm done with your secrets._

 _I'll hang around in the city for a few hours. If you want me to come back then sort your brother out and call me, but only if you are going to tell me what's going on. No more lying._

 _She was so beautiful. I can't tell you how sorry I am._

 _Please call me_

 _Caroline_

She doesn't re-read it. She knows if she does she'll second-guess the demanding tone and she'll hate the pleading and she'll rip it up and never decide what to write. She adds her number to the bottom and makes sure Elijah isn't near by then slips the note into the book of Greek poetry next to the picture of his lost child. She can't exactly leave it on the fridge after all and she imagines he opens that book quite often.

She wanders New Orleans for a few hours killing time, eats gumbo in a restaurant where a band plays sultry Jazz in the corner. Has a fake witch tell her fortune, internally laughing at the obviously charlatan. Eventually she finds herself in Rousseau's, the last stop before she leaves town.

She checks her phone for the hundredth time as she slips into a stool by the bar. Cami's greeting is warm and she regrets she won't get a chance to know the blonde.

"You're leaving?" she sounds surprised as she waves her bar towel at the neat yellow suitcase at her side.

"Yeah. Elijah kicked me out. He had a problem with me snooping" she shrugs and checks her phone again. "Klaus, useful as ever, is M.I.A."

"He did what? I don't'… wait, Klaus left the compound? Wow. He's been holed up in their for weeks."

"Yeah well his timing sucks. Elijah was being a dick, an incredibly courteous dick, but still. Anyway it was pretty clear he wanted me to haul ass outta there in a hurry. He told me in no uncertain terms that Klaus doesn't need me" She pauses, this could be rocky ground between them but she wants to know that Elijah is right, and someone has Klaus' self destructive back in this. "He told me he had you"

Camille frowns and for a second she wishes she hadn't opened this particular can of worms. "Well then Elijah is more than just a dick he's up to something"

"What?"

"He was here, not that long ago. He seemed pretty keen I stay away myself, at least tonight. He mentioned that you weren't staying long and that some time alone with you would be good for Klaus" she shrugs one shoulder. "He wasn't too subtle about trying to make me jealous if I'm honest"

"So Klaus leaves the compound for the first time in a month, Elijah is playing mind games, and you and I are out of the loop." She sets her jaw and sees a mirroring determination in Camille. "Something's gotta be up"

"I think your right" the blonde nods thoughtfully. "It's also a full moon and in this town that always means trouble"

…

She abandons her suitcase at the bar and hurries back to the compound. She's being rash and reckless, defying an Original is not even remotely smart, but she's pretty fired up at the moment, angry with Klaus and Elijah for their deceit, terrified that something terrible is brewing. That she will witness Klaus do something so horrific tonight that she won't be able to ever see past it.

There's no time now to think about what is driving her panic, but she suspects that therein lies the nub of it. If she actually sees him indiscriminately massacre the people of New Orleans she will never, ever, be able to look at him with affection again. She could lose him tonight either to his own violence or to the violence of others and she is not going to let that happen.

She hears him howl as she enters the compound, it's a fearsome sound, a bestial agony that echoes around the courtyard drawing her up the stairs at vamp speed. Pulling her to his studio in spite of the terror bouncing around in her body just as his screams bounce off the walls to assail her from all sides.

"Klaus" she calls desperately as she burst through the door. His canvases are strewn blank and ripped all around him where he kneels on the floor, chest heaving, head hung low. He's silent now apart from his ragged breathing and she goes to him on cautious steps, eyes rabbity as her hands reach instinctively to comfort him.

His back arches suddenly and his head snaps back just before she touches him, a tortured scream rent from his throat, and she leaps away wide eyed and gasping.

"Oh my god Klaus, what's happening to you?" He's on his side now and she can't process him this weak. The invincible Klaus Mikaelson brought literally to his knees, and lower, by some invisible foe.

"The wolves" He gasps out between shuddering breaths. "Their rings" his tongue laps weakly at his own dry lips and she can tell it's a huge effort form him to form even these few words. "Linked to me"

So this is their secret she thinks as she sinks to her knees beside him. No wonder they guard it so jealously. All the enemies he has, all the thousands he's killed and all their loved one and their descendants and all their loved ones. What would they do with the knowledge that he is this vulnerable? If only for a few hours a month he is as weak and defenceless as a child.

She kneels there and watches him as his eyes close and his body contorts with pain. There is nothing she can do except watch, just like watching Tyler turning in the Lockwood cellar way back when being a werewolf scared the hell out of him. Before Klaus made him something more and so much less than that moon mad beast she'd watched over.

This is different though because there's no fear for herself this time. Partly because she's older now, and braver and stronger than she ever believed she could be, and partly because Klaus, even in agony remains Klaus and she believes, despite all logic, that he would never hurt her.

He lets out another roar half man half wolf and rises to his knees, a look of grim satisfaction forming on his pained features. Another roar and he's almost smirking.

"What's going on? Klaus." He looks at her as if he'd forgotten she was there. "What the hell's going on?"

"It's working" he tells her and howls again. Around them magic thrums in the air like a thunderstorm ready to break as his body pushes back against the weakness that took him to the floor.

"What's working? Klaus tell me what's happening or I swear to God this will be the least of the pain you feel today"

He tells her between howls of agony about the Gurrera's rings and how they were tricked into binding their power to his own. About his brother and Haley and Marcel, though if he's a friend or an enemy she's still unsure, out in the city hunting down those twelve rings. It's impressive to watch, to know when each life is taken or hand severed by the power returning piece by piece to his body.

He's not at full strength when the werewolves burst into the room but he's still more than a match for them. He doesn't really need her help but somehow she wants to be a part of this; it feels just.

First come the foot soldiers, a dozen or so in wolf form smashing through the windows. No rings for these poor souls; canon fodder. She has nothing to fear from their bite, not with him so close and she doesn't regret their deaths, they're here for the killing after all.

They stand together and let them come and then they rip them apart like dancing, spinning and tearing and every now and then their eyes meet, black to gold; their connection burning in the blood.

Wolves yelp and howl and die all around them and finally the main event arrives, two of them, with their rings and their foolish self-belief. They had thought he would be weak, had come to take him when he was weak and that enrages her.

She launches herself head on at the smaller of the two, with fangs bared and eyes blooded, and rips at his throat until the blood soaks her skin and his life shudders to a close against her lips. Immediately Klaus howls as the magic whiplashes painfully back through him then he laughs a wild victory laugh and spins her around so she's in his arms.

"Caroline" He gasps out in the second before her mouth connects with his, the blood of the wolves mingling in their kiss, delicious and erotic. Everything she's resisted about vampirism assaults her, the power, the blood, the kill. For the first time she revels in it, loses herself in the undeniable power of what she is, even as that power is dwarfed and tiny compared to his.

"Klaus" she rips at his shirt desperate for his skin. This is nothing like the forest. At the time she'd thought it had been pretty wild but now she sees how human it was, how safe. He'd smiled at her then and he'd kissed her like she was the sexiest angel, to be both ravaged and revered. He does not revere her now. His kiss is brutal, the toxic venom drips from his fangs into her bleeding mouth and she slashes him with her own fangs and sucks the cure form his tongue.

She's driving this, driving him down below her to the ground, reveling in the pretence of dominance his slight frame allows. She grinds against him, tears bestial growls for lust from his throat with her body and hears her own sounds, as animalistic as his, fill the room as she drags her fangs over his neck. His eyes are blue again but she's aware that her face is still veined with the savagery of what she is, she couldn't control it now if she wanted to. She doesn't care.

His hands bruise her body through her clothes, her breast blaze with the exquisite sensation of harm and healing that repeats over and over as he abuses them. She responds in kind slashing his chest with claw like nails and drawing bloodied, healing, lines down to his belt buckle.

"Niklaus!"

Elijah's voice rings out from the courtyard and Klaus stills beneath her with an infuriated sigh. She's not so easily derailed, or she is further gone, and she tugs at his belt for an instant before Elijah calls out again and Klaus brings them in one effortless motion to their feet.

He keeps his arm around her, leads he to the courtyard where his brother waits. Her head is foggy with interrupted lust and so she allows it without conscious thought.

"Hello brother" Klaus greets in a bright conversational tone, his arm slung around her shoulder like she's his best girl. Like they aren't both soaked in blood and she's not still half crazed with viciousness and lust.

Elijah takes in their state with an appraising eye but doesn't speak.

"A successful endeavor dear brother" Klaus makes a triumphant sweeping gesture with his free hand. "But I am not yet at full strength. Tell me Francesca has not escaped"

"Not exactly" Elijah smiles a small icy smile. "This is Haley's personal revenge and I have left her take it as she sees fit"

Klaus' eyes dance at that and he turns to kiss her temple. Prompting a slight rising of Elijah's left eyebrow. She really should step out from Klaus' embrace but it feels too good to lean against him in her blood drunk state and she lets herself smile at his affection.

"I see you two have also had an," Elijah searches for an adjective. "Eventful, evening"

Klaus points at his brother. "Attacked in my own home." He sounds more insulted than angry. "Luckily Caroline came to my rescue." He's buzzing, bright and playful, jolly even, in the wake of their battle. He turns to her again and dazzles her with a bloody smile.

She fixes Elijah with a challenging look, one sculpted eyebrow raised expectantly. She'll take his apology right now thank you very much.

"How fortunate that Miss Forbes was so close at hand" Elijah glances down and back up at her, his mouth pressed together in the slightest closed mouth smile. "Whatever would have happened had she chosen to leave us early?"

She laughs, she can't help it. Elijah's eyes are speaking secret humour just to her and he won't apologise, ever, but she doesn't even care because she's so high right now. "Well I'm not one to run out on my friends" she chides him haughtily. "No matter what"

The hybrid at her side tugs her closer still and her hand slips into his back pocket like high schoolers at a parade. "I can't tell you brother, she was…"

Elijah casts his eyes over her bloodied clothes, her free shining eyes. "Magnificent?" he suggests like a truce. Klaus laughs in agreement and she laughs too. Damn right she's magnificent.

It's a crazy perfect moment and she feels like nothing will ever be better than this. She's thinking she might kiss him again, because he feels so good against her body and looks so vibrant beside her, when a muffled noise turns them all towards the arched entrance. Her face changes, she's still pumped with adrenaline and her body is ready for another fight.

"Oh god" Cami stumbles, gracelessly human, into the courtyard. "What happened?"

And just like that it's all spiraling away. She's crashing down to earth and she can't even brace for impact. Cami's frightened eyes run over them, taking in Elijah's bloodied cuffs, Klaus's naked chest, her savage blackened eyes. And all that blood, so much goddam blood.

She's covered in it, clothes and skin and hair all caked with it and its no longer magnificent, it's hideous. She sees herself through Cami's human eyes and her face smoothens out a mask of humanity that won't fool anyone, not with all this cloying redness marking her as a monster.

"Camille" Klaus greets happily, he's not ashamed to be caught like this. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Oh shut up Klaus" Cami snaps. "Somebody tell me what the hell is going one"

Klaus seems to enjoy the blonde's spirited response. He gives her a charming look, crooked smile, sparkling eyes dancing under his lashes. "We defended our home Camille," he tells her. "From those who would seek to destroy us. You won't be having any more trouble with those werewolves trailing you I can assure you"

"Looks more like you went to war"

She can't look at Cami, can't bear her soulful understanding gaze. Shame and self-disgust crawl over her like living fingers smearing through the blood; she has to get away.

Pulling sharply away from Klaus she captures all their attention. She keeps her head down, her eyes wide and staring, unfocused, at the floor. "Oh god" she whispers. "Oh god"

Cami takes a step towards her but she backs up fast, hands raised to ward her off. "No" it's almost a shout and she stops short and looks so terribly concern. "Get off me"

Camille takes her reaction for anger at her or her interruption and looks a little hurt. "Maybe I should go," she offers.

"No" she tries to meet the human's gaze but fails. "No I need to go"

"Caroline?" Klaus' voice is confused by her sudden withdrawing.

"No" She can meet his eyes, he can't judge her after all. "I have to go" She begs him to let it be, to let her go without a fight. "Please I…. this isn't me"

The hurt on his face makes her even more desperate to escape, she can't give him what he wants unless she gives herself away and becomes this creature, this monster, she has been tonight. "This isn't me," she repeats, this cannot be her. Cami has brought her suitcase and she grabs it jerkily from the blonde and makes for the door.

It's Camille who catches her as she reaches her car. "Caroline?"

She imagines the blonde gave Klaus no choice but stay behind and she's grateful but she doesn't look back as she opens the door. "Look out for him?" she asks her voice stronger than she'd have imagined it would be. "He needs some humanity in his life"

"And that can't be you?" Camille challenges, she gets the sense that this fragile human isn't one to back down. Good.

She looks at the blonde then "No" she shakes her head sadly before getting in the car. And then just to herself as she starts the engine. "No".


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N So i had a review from someone who doesn't watch the originals . This chapter weaves in around episode 2x04 when Mikael is resurrected by Davina. I'm not sure it matters that much, you can just accept that you only know what caroline knows, what Klaus tells her in this chapter. After this chapter i plan to veer away from originals canon anyway.**

Chapter 5

Three days later and she's doing a pretty darn good impression of Caroline Forbes. Diligent, perky, in control, perfect make up, stunning hair. She's every inch Miss Mystic Falls and she's making college look easy.

Underneath she's cracking but it doesn't show. Cracking under the oppressive understanding of something she should have realized the moment she withdrew her blooded fangs form that carnival worker the night she turned.

It's something Stephan and Damon have always known, that even sweet Elena must understand, she has seen herself through emotionless eyes after all; that they are tied to death and it to them. She can no longer deny the cursed debt they owe to the graves they scorned, to alway provide dead offerings in their stead.

She needs her control right now; it keeps her sane. The iron hard self control that has made her an example to them all. She can't think of Klaus, he remains silent at the center of her brain, locked down tight. She has made him a symbol of lost control and if she can control him she can, perhaps, control herself.

"Red or pink?" she asks her friends and waves two lipsticks in the air.

"Red" "Pink" Bonnie and Elena answer at once and they all laugh. She choses pink.

Her phone rings, the number unknown. She should be more careful.

"Hello"

"Caroline, it's me. I found your note" his voice knocks the wind out of her and she doesn't reply. "I just… can we talk? About what happened"

Elena can hear him of course and her eyes are huge and comical with concern.

"I" she starts but she's too aware of Elena's worried stare and Bonnie's confused frown to speak.

"Klaus" she sees Elena mouth to Bonnie.

"Elena!" she reprimands her friend and snaps out of her speechlessness

"Look Klaus, I'm kinda busy. I'm going out, you know with my actual friends so can we do this later?" she has to get rid of him she can't let him in. She can't let them see her let him in. "Like way way later. Or, even better, never"

She hears him swallow, pictures him turning his head away. "Ok, fine"

Her soft heart twists at his guarded tone and chides her cold cold brain for it's cruelty. She's opening her mouth to, god not to apologise, just to say something, but he's already gone so she rolls her eyes at her friends and tosses the phone away.

"Are you ok Care?" Elena asks. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"No Elena" she shakes her head at the ridiculousness of the question. "Of course not"

"Did you sleep with him again?" Bonnie never got a chance to give her a piece of her mind the first time and she can tell the witch is ready to unleash some pent up judgement on her ass right now.

"No!" She huffs in exasperation. "Jesus. Look there was a fight ok. We were attacked by some, very, evil wolves and it all got a bit bloody. It shook me up, that's all. I'm fine."

She picks up her phone and shoves it in her purse. "Come on, lets go to this damn party"

…..

They have fun. They drink and dance and laugh together and she almost believes Klaus worst-timing-ever Mikaelson's call is forgotten when Elena nudges her none too subtly and points across the bar.

"He is so checking you our Care" She grins.

She just nods disinterestedly; she's yet to realise they're testing her.

"You should say hi?" Bonnie chimes in.

"What? No I'm with you guys." She rolls her eyes dismissively. "Besides he's not my type"

Both Bonnie's eyebrows shoot up at that and she rocks back on one hip to fix her with a feisty look.

"He is totally your type" Elena pushes. "Handsome, well dressed, built like a quarter back. What's not to like?"

Bonnie purses her lips. "Unless your type is skinny and evil now?" she tilts her chin challengingly. "Because Elena has dibs on that type."

"Hey" Elena swipes weakly at her friend. "Damon is not skinny"

Bonnie gives the brunette a disbelieving, smiling, frown. Even with Bonnie it seems that although Damon is wicked and Damon is unrepentant, Damon is forgiven. His evil a mere foible brushed aside by their love for him, how does that even work. "That's the part you're disagreeing with?"

Elena shrugs playfully and she feels like she's dodged a bullet. She hasn't. They round on her again, a two pronged attack of good intentions. "So?" Bonnie isn't going to let this lie.

"No, skinny and evil is not my type now" she replies in feigned exasperation and then, honestly because they are the people dearest to her in the world. "I just have some purging to do in that department before I'm ready for you know," she makes a vague gesture across the bar, "stocky and good"

"Ok" Elena smiles gently. "But, on the other hand, what better way to purge?"

They both look at her expectantly and she gives in. "Fine" she huffs and stomps over to their chosen target. "Buy me a drink," she demands. "So I can get my annoying matchmaker friends off of my back"

He does, although he's decidedly taken aback by her bluntness. He tries really hard and he's really nice and she texts Klaus while he tells her about his Major.

 _Sorry. Elena and Bonnie listening in. Later ok._

…..

"This better be bloody important" Klaus snarls as the call connects.

"Oh I'm sorry did I interrupt your beauty sleep" she's immediately relaxed at the sound of his aggravated voice, the tension of a few moments ago, when she slipped furtively from their dorm room clutching her phone, is gone and she can sass him. "My bad"

"Caroline?"

"Yeah" she huffs. "Check your caller ID like a normal person"

He laughs. "My apologies love, you caught me napping"

She laughs too but sobers quickly. "I'm sorry about earlier. I know I was kinda bitchy, I just couldn't deal with an interrogation"

"I'm sorry too love, didn't mean to cause you trouble."

"Well you did" she complains and shifts on the hard bench in the empty cafeteria to get comfortable. "Here's a shocker; they don't like you. They made me chat up this guy. I think it was some kind of test"

"Did you pass?" he asks with a faint hint of jealousy in his voice that she could be imagining.

"I don't know, I smiled a lot and I got a number." She shrugs though he can't see it. "It'll keep them off my back for a little while."

"Caroline" he starts his voice low and serious, he's going to go there, the bastard is going to try and talk about the fight, the killing, the passion.

"No," she has to stop him. "I can't see you. I can't be around you ok"

"I see" he sighs. "Want to tell me why not love?"

She remembers then he'd dropped his gaze that day in the forest when she'd told him none of the things she wanted in the future involved him. He'd said "I see" then too but it had sounded disappointed then and resigned. This time he's not so easily deflated, she called him after all. If she'd honest she's been waiting for a chance to call him all night. Just a few words, just that hint of hurt that in turn hints at some buried humanity, and she's sneaking out in the middle of the night to call him. What a fool.

"Lots of reasons, I could make you a list." She has to control this, this softening in her heart. "Your body count for one; Jenna, the hybrids, Mayor Lockwood. I don't need any more reasons"

"But that's not it is it or you'd have been done with me ages ago?" He makes a thoughtful hmming noise. "So why now? After you came to me I might add. Why is our friendship impossible now"

He says friendship like it could be that. The word is a pretence they both indulge, a lie so they don't have to acknowledge the all or nothing ultimatum that is the reality of their relationship.

"Because I lost control Klaus." She pauses and he gives her time to gather her words. "I killed those wolves and I'm not sorry because they so had it coming, but I was totally lost in it. I can't be like that"

"It's who you are" he tries to keep his tone light. "We're vampires, love, not kittens"

"But we don't have to be monsters and that's what I'd be around you." She rubs her eyes, suddenly too tired for this. "I don't want to be a monster"

"You think I do?" he asks in a low voice. She almost says yes, she wants to believe he does. Any fragment of regret, any sliver of yearning in him for redemption and she'll be lost, like Elijah is lost, in the searching for it.

"I don't know. Maybe. Either way you can't change it now. You've been alive so long, you've killed too many people and you have too many enemies. You're stuck like this. But I can still be better. I can choose to live differently."

"Giving up on me then love" he gives a dry humourless laugh. "Ok."

"Am I wrong?" she asks. God she's going to start chasing the rabbit of his redemption herself if she doesn't put some distance between them. "Because I would love to be wrong. I would love for there to be something, anything, that you could care about more than power and blood. I just can't imagine what it would be"

He laughs again more genuine this time. "I suppose you can't," he says in that infuriatingly knowing way of his. "I should let you get some sleep sweetheart"

She nods stupidly. He's going to hang up. He may never call back.

"Does you calling me count as breaking your promise?" she asks just to keep him from ending the call, when just a second ago she was desperate to shut him out. Mixed signals thy name is Caroline Forbes.

"Well technically you called me. And you did give me your number"

"Ok so that's a no then I guess" She can't stop herself, maybe its because its so late and so silent in the cafeteria and the night always takes the reality off things, makes anything possible. "So maybe you could call again. Just on the phone. You know, now and then"

…

She's ashamed to say she's waited for his call. Under all the vampiric power, all the awful experiences that have hardened her, all her famous self control. She's still barely out of her teens and ridiculous as it is to have him, of all people, buzzing about in the 'boys' section of her young mind, there he is. The hot guy who said he'd call.

When he does her heart pounds a little in excitement and she curses herself.

"Klaus. What do you want?" she sounds pissy, redirecting the annoyance she feels at herself onto him.

He can take it. "Hello Caroline, dulcet as always"

"Ha-ha, what do you want?" she repeats hamming up the exasperation.

"Potentially to say goodbye. Although I sincerely hope you'll be in a position to scold me later for being melodramatic."

Her mind floods with concern. His tone is light enough but underneath runs an undeniable current of fear. "What is it? What's going on there?"

"We're having a little trouble with resurrected filicidal parents at the moment." He sounds cavalier but she knows better. "Our dear mother Esther has the body of a teenage witch and a harebrained plan to redeem us all through torment, murder and resurrection, while another teenage witch has brought Mikeal back from the great beyond to do her bidding."

He pauses and she bites her lip as she waits for him to continue. "To make matters worse said witch is also in possession of the white oak stake and a grudge against me that could be best describe as murderous and just."

"Wow" she doesn't know what to say. "What are you going to do?"

"I've killed them before I'll do it again. Starting with my father. Tonight"

"Tell me you have an actual plan" she's scared for him now. He doesn't think straight when it comes to his farther. His famous ability to strategies vanishes in the face of centuries of fear and abuse. "What does Elijah…"

"No" he growls quietly. "I'll go alone. I'll kill him. I'll look into his dying eyes and he'll know that I am not weak"

She hears his quickened breathing, imagines the wildness on his face. He could die tonight be actually finally and completely dead. She admires that he no longer runs from what so obviously still terrifies him, but it's a mad sort of bravery that could see him gone forever.

"Klaus" she speaks softly and feels him focus on her across the miles between them. "It's not weak you know. To take Elijah, Marcel, Haley, even Cami. It's not weakness to have people who'll stand with you, who'll have your back because they love you." He's listening but she suspects there's no room in his ancient mind for a change in this, his father has moulded him too surely into what he is. "It's strength. It's a strength Mikeal will never know because there is nothing human in him."

He doesn't answer and she can't tell if she'll get through. "So don't be an idiot, ok? Don't get yourself killed because you're too damn proud to let them help you."

"I won't let him call me weak ever again" he grinds out with a doggedness born of spending too long degraded and afraid.

"Seriously? God! Klaus it doesn't matter." She explodes at his stubbornness. "Who cares what that asshole thinks when he dies? Just make sure that it's him not you tonight or so help me I'll have Bonnie resurrect you so I can kill you myself."

He laughs and hangs up and it takes all of ten seconds for her to remember that his death would kill them all. She tries to call him back but his phone goes straight to voicemail and she curses him. Curses herself for being too caught up in her fear for him to remind him that he was risking all their lives. She sighs and rubs her face, the rabbit is running and she's already caught up in the chase.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 **Elijah's point of view.**

 **I didn't want to have to switch away from Caroline but I just can't think how to work this next bit without knowing what's happening in NOLA while Caroline is back in college. So a short chapter to set the scene and then we'll be back looking at the world through caroline's eyes. Originals 2x08 so this is from where Klaus and Elijah have Finn and Kol prisoner and they get the call form rebekah to say she's been spotted by Esther's starlings**

Esther has found Rebekah, and if they do not act quickly she will soon discover that Hope is alive. He hangs up the phone and turns to his brother who curses loudly and barks savagely "Get Haley here now."

They gather hurriedly in the drawing room, his brother is pacing fiercely beside the dead fireplace while the beautiful wolf, who's presence under any other circumstances would be an exquisite torture to him, sits contrastingly rigid nearby. They are both terrified and fierce and ready for battle.

His brother is ranting, a stream of bile and hatred for their mother pours out in a circling tirade that is as self-indulgent as it is tedious. He bites his tongue, he has long since learned to let his brother rant. Marcel calls Klaus the cleverest person he's ever met, he would not go that far himself, he hasn't a son's adulation for the hybrid after all, but in machinations of war there are few better than his little brother, and that brother's mind works best when he is either painting or raving.

Finally Niklaus' tirade ends and he stares out of the window. "Our sister won't be able to outrun Mother's starlings for long"

"We should go now," he suggests. "Gather in numbers around Hope, make our defence away from New Orleans where her magic will be weaker"

"Not weak enough brother." Klaus turns to face them shaking his head in irritation. "Do not forget our mother was diabolical long before she joined the ancestors in the quarter and the power of the wolves on her leash is not restricted by geography. No Hope's best chance if flight"

"Then we run, together just as we ran from Mikael for ten centuries"

"Mikael, terrifying as he is" Haley interjects. "Was pretty much just a crazy Viking with a stick compared to Esther. She can find us with locater spells, she can have her pack scent us out, she even has flocks of birds on her side. She'd find us, she'd find Hope."

"She would find us." His brother turns back to the window his hands falling languidly to his sides. "She will see Rebekah run, she will see us moving, she'll see it all and she'll be one step ahead."

The hybrid turns back to face them and raises a finger "But what if when Rebekah runs, Hope remains." He glances at Haley to be sure he has both their full attention and Elijah feels a tiny fractional easing in his fear. Niklaus has a plan at least. "My mother, her wolves and her deranged witches place their energies into hunting our sister. You, Elijah, will join them to add credibility to the ruse. Haley will rouse the free wolves and stir up trouble among the packs. While I will use our brothers to against Esther"

"Kol will join us" he agrees. "He has no real love for mother and Finn can be used as bait if nothing else"

"Even our mother's considerable resources will be spread thin. And meanwhile Hope is slipped silently away." Niklaus makes a vanishing gesture with his hand, fingers splaying elegantly and smiles a little.

"By whom brother? What allies do we have that we could trust with Hope?"

"Oh" his brother's lips twist with knowing pleasure. "I have one idea"

"Damn it brother who?" he is in no mood for games.

"Why my Caroline of course"

…

"Are you quite serious Niklaus?" He understands that his brother has a crush on the girl. He's not surprised, she is both beautiful and fiery spirited and she has an air of goodness, of light, that Niklaus has always been drawn too. But he cannot surely mean to trust her with Hope.

"Quite serious" Klaus does indeed look utterly resolved. "It's perfect. No one would expect us to turn to her. "

"And with good reason. Whatever connection you believe you have with her, the truth is; you barely know this girl."

"I know enough." The hybrid gestures with an upturned palm. "Did she not prove herself the night the wolves attacked, eh brother? She stood by me that night despite your own efforts to remove her"

"Yes she did but this is Hope. I will not see her put at any risk." He pauses and tries to read his brother's determined eyes. "This girl is not family"

"And what good is family to my daughter now?" the hybrid asks in frustration and his voice hitches slightly with the emotion that always chokes him when he feels the hurt of familial betrayal. "Her own grandmother, her uncles, are bent on her destruction and we three" he swings an arm about them to encompass both him and Haley where she stands beside them stone faced and thoughtful. "Will only lead them too her "

"Would she even help us?" he presses. "This endeavour would carry great risk and after everything you have done to hurt her loved ones, why would she risk herself? Why would she help?"

"She'd help" Haley speaks quietly. "They all would. They're good people"

"You agree with him? Haley we cannot assume anyone's good intentions"

"Then what the hell are we doing any of it for?" Haley looks both weary and determined. "If Hope has to grow up in a world where no one can be trusted then why are we even trying to protect her she'd be better off with the ancestors"

They're all stunned by Haley's words but his brother recovers quickest and pushes his case. "If she would help us, with no explanation, no bargains, no threats, simply because we asked it. Would you trust her then?"

Haley nods and he must concede they are Hope's parents after all. "Yes. If she would come for no other reason than that you needed her, then I would trust her"

…...

"Klaus you complete and utter dick." She doesn't even let him speak, it seems the mere sight of his brother's name on the screen of her phone is enough to send her flying into a rage. "I cannot believe you have the nerve to call me after what you did!"

He thinks he'll get a word in then but she's off again, this tirade has obviously been brewing for some time. "You call me to tell me you are probably going to die then you fall of the grid for forty eight fucking hours and I get a text message. A text message! From Cami to let me know you're alive. God do you ever think about anyone but yourself?"

"A very good question Miss Forbes. One I have been asking my baby brother for over a thousand years." He enjoys her stunned silence.

"Elijah?" she sounds utterly dumbfounded and then worry floods her voice. "What's going on? Where's Klaus? Is he… is he ok?"

"I'm afraid not. My brother is in dire need of your assistance Miss Forbes. Enemies and circumstance have conspired against him and he requires you, specifically and only you, to come to his aid"

"What's going on?" she sounds agitated, anger running over fear like silk slipping over skin.

"I'm afraid this is not something I can tell you over the phone. There is an address. You must go there, Rebekah will be waiting to tell you what to do"

"Seriously? Rebekah?" She snorts. "Are you crazy? No way!"

He looks at his brother, who does not seem concerned by her adamant refusal and merely raises his eyebrows and makes a circling gesture with his hand for him to continue.

"Secrecy is of absolute importance Miss Forbes, I can tell you no more. But this I must tell you; that if you refuse then Niklaus will lose everything. His humanity, his family, maybe even his life, all chance of his redemption will be forever lost"

Her swallow is loud enough to be heard across the room where his brother is listening intently. She sucks in air equally loudly and releases it with her soft resigned words. "What do I do?"

Klaus' face breaks into a triumphant smile and he wags a finger in victory. Underneath the predictable crowing he sees the genuine happiness on his brothers face and gives an acknowledging tip of his head as he tells the young vampire what she must do.

...

 **A/N I know this is a bit of a file chapter but i promise a return to action and some Klaus caroline interaction in the next exciting installment**

 **Thanks for the reviews, all reviewers get sloppy kisses and a pat on the head. I must reply to Sam who isn't messagable. i think you are so right that in TVD land forgiving Damon is all about Elena's happiness and i think Klaus wouldn't get the same not because he's done worse (although he is much badder) than Damon but because Caroline's happiness wouldn't carry the same importance. Could i use that thought later on if i can work it in?**

 **Hugs and slugs**

 **TheBear**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 **A/N a long one. Mainly because i promised some Klaroline interaction so just had to keep writing till i got to some :-P**

She'd scribbled Elijah's instructions down on a piece of paper from one of her school pads. They don't amount to much, an address and an instruction to get there fast without being seen. To tell no one.

She's lost her mind she tells herself as she steps out of the car and looks, with some trepidation, across open ground at the house she's been sent to. Elijah has a good voice for the dire and the dramatic, she hears him on repeat in her head. "He requires you, specifically and only you" he'd said other very ominous stuff about family and redemption but that's the line she's stuck on.

All her resistance, all her pretence of indifference, her late night self-analysis and determined mirror pep talks. It all just melts away because Elijah, who she is still majorly pissed at for bullying back in New Orleans, calls to say Klaus needs her.

He needs her. She's here. How simple things can turn out to be.

One deep breath and a burst of inhuman speed and she's slipping through the back door, open as promised, more quickly than the human eye could register. She walks quietly into the small house and through a window at the front she sees Rebekah loading bags into the back of her SUV.

A moment later the original is rushing back through the front door. She notices her and breathes out a shakey sigh. She's never seen Rebekah look so anxious and she can't imagine that what she's got herself messed up in can possibly lead her anywhere good.

"You're here. I didn't think you'd show." Rebekah doesn't actually sound surprised. "Nik was convinced though. Hmm maybe you are sweet on him after all."

"Seriously Rebekah" she fixes the original with her haughtiest most impatient look. "I have trekked halfway across the state because your stuck up big brother tells me that your evil big brother is in trouble. I'm not sweet on him Rebekkah; I'm pissed. So tell what's the hell I'm doing here right now or all of you Mikaelsons can shove you're dire warnings and your cryptic messages up your collective ass and I will go back to college and forget about the lot of you."

Rebekah smiles and it's the softest expression she's ever seen on the blonde's face, warm and surprising like the first glimpses of spring after a thousand year winter. "Oh I think there's one Mikaelson you'll be happy to help"

"I told you I do not have a crush on Klaus"

"Yes you do" Rebekah states matter-of-factly. "But I'm not talking about Nik. Come on"

She follows Rebekah's quiet steps up the stairs and into a small curtained room. She hears the soft snoring before she sees the bright nursery colours or the delicate glass mobile hanging above the plain white cot. She feels her shock written on her face, hears it in in her own disbelieving gasp. "Oh" she breathes stupidly. "She's alive"

Rebekah steps to the cot and looks down lovingly at the tiny sleeping form. "She is. Caroline meet my niece Hope Mikaelson" she smiles and glances up before fixing her eyes worriedly on Hope again. "Things were so bad in New Orleans, Nik and Haley decided to fake her death. We thought they'd be able to fix everything with the wolves and the witches and bring her home. But now Esther's back and it all keeps getting worse."

The baby stirs just a fraction and Rebekah ushers her silently out of the room.

"My mother's been looking for me. She has this lunatic plan to put us all in human bodies. She's found me, or at least her bloody starlings have" Rebekah explains, waving off her questioning look. "It's not safe for Hope, if Esther finds out she's alive she won't stop until she's sacrificed her to the bloody witch ancestors the psychotic bitch."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"You have to take her." Rebekah's statement blindsides her so badly she feels like she's been punched in the back of the head and her whole body lurches a fraction forward.

"What?"

"Elijah and I are the decoys, we run. Meanwhile Nik and Haley will wage war in the quarter and as we make noise and thunder around my mother you will slip Hope away. Get her somewhere safe while we dispose of our parents"

She does want to help, she truly does. Klaus' child lives, his Hope, his little girl is sleeping innocently upstairs and she knows she'd do anything to help them. But this is beyond her. If she fails... She can't even imagine failing its too terrible.

"Rebekah I have no idea what to do." She shakes her head, internally begging for this to be someone else's responsibility.

"You'll figure it out." Rebekah dismisses her reservations and starts fussing around stuffing what she vaguely recognizes as the paraphernalia of baby care into a large bag with a puppy motif on the corner of the flap. "She's pretty easy, warm milk, clean nappies" She smiles and it's with the sweetest regret. "Lots of cuddles. There's instructions on all the packets"

"No Rebekah. I mean how can I keep her safe? Where do I go?" she can't slow her brain down enough to realise she's repeating herself. "I don't know what to do."

Rebekah stops abruptly and meets her eyes. "Look my brother may be a magnificent wanker but he's clever and he reads people better than anyone I've ever known. If he thinks you can do this Caroline then you can." She tilts her head and a hand goes to her hip in a gesture Caroline recognises from their time as rivals in Mystic Falls. "I don't like you but I wouldn't trust Hope with you if I didn't think you could do this. Nik believes in you and that's enough for me"

She swallows and thinks of that domino effect of faith; Rebekah's in Klaus, his in her and her own in her friends. It's probably not what the Original's have in mind but if they're putting their trust in her than she'll do this the only way she knows how.

She hits the road and drives in the only direction she can. She texts Klaus from the road.

 _Taking her to MF call when you have a plan_

….

"It's a baby" Elena looks back and forth between her and Hope where she cradles the infant against her body.

"Yes Elena it's a baby. Seriously, come on it's not the first one you've ever seen." She's exasperated but to be fair to her friend, she's only seeing on that pretty face the same bewilderment she's still feeling.

Even after a few hours in the car with Hope, a bungled feed in a roadside dinner, where she'd needed a matronly waitress to help her console the child after she'd popped the too hot bottle into her mouth, and an incredibly gross diaper change she's still struggling with the tiny bundle of human reality in her arms. Poor Elena, they haven't even got to the fun bit yet.

"Who's is it?"

And there's the question she's not sure how to form and answer too. She's given a momentary reprieve when Damon saunters into the boarding house with his brother just behind him. "So what's the big emergency?" he asks before his eyes land on Hope. "Whoa what the hell's that?"

She groans, she'd hoped to catch Elena alone for this. Well what does it matter they'll all know eventually? Still, Damon annoys her and she can't give him a straight answer. "It's a troop of Romanian acrobats" she bites out. "What do you think it is?"

"It's a baby." Stefan confirms and she could cheerfully slap them all upside the head right now.

"Yes." She nods slowly and lets her tone imply that they are all very stupid. "It's a baby"

Damon narrows his eyes. "And what is it doing in my house?"

"She" Caroline emphasizes pointedly. "Is here because she needs protection and we are not the kind of people who turn away a baby in need of help." She's glad to remind them of that now before the inevitable subject of the child's parentage comes up again.

"Of course not" Elena assures her, cutting off Damon who seems poised to disagree. Finally the shock is wearing off and Elena is drawn, smiling, to the little one in her arms. The brunette places her finger in Hope's chubby palm and laughs a small delighted laugh as the tiny fingers wrap around it. "Oh you are so lovely," she tells Hope. "You are aren't you? So gorgeous"

Her voice is getting that sugary quality people get when addressing babies and Damon roles his eyes at his girlfriend. "So" he draws the word out as he draws Elena away. "What are we protecting this little" he makes a camp waving gesture at the baby and his face scrunches up with vague distaste. "thing from."

"Her grandmother. A thousand year old witch who, it appears, wants to sacrifice her to the spirits or the ancestors or something equally messed up"

"Dark." Stefan comments tilting his head to better observe the child.

"Ahhh ah ah no way" Damon is all caught up it seems, clever clever Damon, oh joy. "No, no, no! Are you completely insane? And isn't it supposed to be dead?"

"Well they faked it" she hugs Hope a little tighter and fixes Damon with a challenging look. Around them she's aware of Elena and 's baffled faces but she keeps her eyes focused on the narrowed blue ones she still can't deny are the prettiest she's ever seen. "Obviously"

"Guys" Elena cuts in. "Explain"

"Yeah Caroline" Damon taunts, crossing his arms. "Why don't you tell the class exactly who's hell-spawn you've gone charging all over the state to babysit"

"Oh" and Stefan's in the game. If Elena get's a clue in the next few seconds she'll be spared the trouble of forcing his name past her unwilling lips.

"Yeah 'oh'" she smiles wryly at Stefan. "But she's not hell-spawn ok. Look at her, she's just a baby, so let's not over react," the last she addresses to Damon who purses his lips at her but holds his tongue.

"I don't unders…"

"God Elena." She snaps, "She's Klaus', ok? Catch up already"

"Klaus'?" Elena takes a deep shaky breath. "Wow"

"Sorry" she throws her startled friend an apologetic look. "I have had an extremely weird day"

Elena gives a small conciliatory laugh and they share a soft look. "I bet. Come on lets get her settled in. Then we'll call Bonnie"

"What? She's not staying here" Damon addresses her but it's Elena who takes it upon herself to make the child's case and she loves her sweet compassionate friend more than ever.

Elena can handle Damon, so she picks up Hope's puppy motif bag and makes for the stairs. The boarding house has plenty of rooms to choose from and she picks out a small cozy one she knows will get the morning sun when it rises in about eight hours.

She looks around for somewhere to lay her down but the bed looks awfully high and she's worried the baby will roll on to floor. She's still staring dumbly around when Stefan enters almost silently behind her. Just the sight of him breaks her tough, in control, façade and her eyes fill with exhausted tears. "She doesn't have a bed"

smiles and touches her shoulder then he takes a draw from the chest and folds a small patchwork quilt into it. "There" his smile is barely there but it's still as warm and comfortable and as inviting as the make shift bed he's made for Hope. Thank god for her friends. "Just like they did it in the old days"

"Thank you" she says sincerely as she lays the baby down and she's not talking about the bed or even that when she'd called saying only that she needed them they'd all dropped everything to be here. She's talking about the lack of judgment in his eyes, the acceptance that she knows what she's doing.

"No problem" he pulls her into a hug as she stands and she clings to him and sniffles.

After a moment she pulls away. "Do you think I'm crazy?" she asks looking at the sleeping baby. "To get involved with Klaus and all his drama"

"Are you involved with Klaus?" Stefan asks carefully. His head is titled down slightly giving the impression that he's looking up at her. He puts her at ease so naturally it really is a gift with him.

"No, of course not." She huffs because his expression is doubtful. "Seriously how could I be? He's literally the most evil person I've ever met"

"Literally" Stefan agrees wryly.

"And I have met more than my share" she smiles, but his look turns instantly serious. "Hey I don't count you in that." She tries to joke because she can almost see his regret settling on him like a thick fog. "Maybe Damon though"

He picks at his own nails for a long heavy moment before speaking again. "You should count me," he tells her. "I've killed way more than Damon. Year for year I've probably killed more than Klaus, he's just been at it longer"

She feels obliged to contradict him, even though its true. "But you're reformed"

"For now, but I'm not kidding myself Caroline there's going to be a time in the future when I fall off the wagon again or I flick the switch and I'll be the ripper again. People will die because of me"

Her heart aches for him, and for herself because it's true of all of them. In just two years as a vampire she'd already killed a bakers dozen of innocents. Only days ago she added a bloody handful of werewolves to her body count. How many more will she kill by the time she's walked the earth as long as Stefan, or Klaus?

He catches her introspective look and smiles. "We can't judge ourselves by human standards Caroline. If we did, we'd all be damned"

Her phone rings cutting off the reply she hadn't been sure she could form. His name burns across the screen of her phone and her heart rate speeds up enough to make Stefan tilt his head enquiringly.

"Klaus'll be mad if you don't pick up," he tells her after a moment she spends frozenly staring at his name.

"How'd you know it's Klaus?" she asks surprised

He laughs. "It's written all over your, umm," his eyes are mischievous and slightly smug. "Not involved face"

"Haha" she gripes and her phone falls silent.

A second later Stefan's rings and he answer's it with a resigned knowing sigh "Klaus"

"Tell Caroline to answer her bloody phone" she hears Klaus snap and his voice, faint and angry as it is, coming through Stefan's phone still make her body sag with the release of tension she hadn't even known she was feeling. He is safe, he is grouchy and all is right in their messed up world.

"I will do that" Stefan responds in an expressionless voice

"And Stefan…"

"I know" Stefan cuts the hybrid off, they've all heard his threats plenty of times before. "If we screw this up you'll slaughter everyone we've ever cared about"

"No I," she hears it all clearly through the phone, his hesitation, his deep intake of breath. "Thank you. For taking them in"

Klaus hangs up before Stefan can respond and her phone rings again. "Klaus says answer your phone" Stefan tells her with a thoughtful frown and leaves her to it.

"Hi" she breathes as she connects the call.

"Caroline," his voice is sharp and agitated. "You took her to the Salvatores?"

"Hey" she's not about to let him rail on her for this. "You said protect her, this is the only way I know how. So if you don't like it you feel free to get your ass over here anytime and take care of her yourself"

"Caroline" she hears him relax, hears the smile in his voice. "I'm not an idiot love I knew where you would go. What is important is that my mother does not."

"Please tell me you have a plan to get rid of her"

"We do"

He tells her about their plan. How Rebekah will offer herself up and while Esther is focused on body jumping her into a brand new witch body they'll make their move, make her a vampire, do to her what she did to them a millennia ago. She can tell Klaus relishes the circular justice of it and the darkness in her agrees, still she's light enough to know it's a terrible punishment and she can't match his glee.

"Rebekah is prepared to be human if we can't stop the spell, but I have no intention of failing. We'll stop the spell before mother jumps Rebekah." he concludes. "Then she and I will come for Hope"

"Maybe..." she stops she really should mind her own business

"Maybe?"

She huffs lightly, she's never been one to keep out of people affairs, why start now. "Maybe you should fail, just this once. I mean not killing your mother, I'm go team Klaus on that one. I mean Rebekah. Its just, I saw the way she was with Hope. I think she wants it"

"She's my sister." She marvels at how much meaning she can read in his voice. Is it just him? is he an open book or is it their connection, the one she no longer denies, opening him up to her so she can hear everything in those few words.

That he needs Rebekah and he's terrified of losing her and selfish in his desire to keep her eternally, but also that he loves her and under all his own fear and loneliness he does want her to be happy. She won't try and force his hand, she isn't that convinced she's right.

"I should go" he changes the subject. "There is much to be done before we end our dear mother tonight."

"Ok"

"Caroline" he sounds unsure and her heart reaches out across the miles to him. His weakness, it seems, is her greatest weakness when it comes to him. When he is vulnerable she drops her guard, she forgets all the reasons she should despise him and she longs, deep and powerfully in her soul, she longs for him. "I…"

A thousand years and he's almost physically incapable of expressing his emotions. She can picture his mouth doing that faltering opening and closing thing it does when he wants to say something from the heart. God he sucks.

Part of her, that same longing part, begs to let him off, a soft "I know" or "you're welcome" gallantly preempting his gratitude. But damn it she's putting herself to a serious degree of trouble here and he can just grow a pair and spit it out. "Yes?"

"I have not seen my daughter since the night she was born," he says quietly. "It is a terrible pain to be separated from your own blood. But knowing that she is with you. That you, Caroline, would care for her until I can care for her myself, it is…. Thank you"

"You're welcome," she whispers through the thickness forming in her throat.

"Hey wait" she stops him when she senses he's going to hang up. "Hold on"

She re-enters Hopes room and holds the phone near the sleeping infant. Through the phone she hears his shuddering intake of breath. "Is that her?"

"Yeah. Your daughter has a big snore for a little thing"

He laughs and she can tell from the choked sound of it that there are tears in his eyes, he's such a softie under all his bluster. "Yes well, you're one to talk"

"Hey I do not snore," she hisses indignantly

"Caroline, you kept me awake form the other side of the compound"

"You big fat liar I did not"

"I didn't want to tell you for fear of embarrassing you." He continues in the teasing tone she remembers from the Miss Mystic pageant when she'd first realized just how much she enjoyed his company. "But one of the windows in your room had to be replaced, it had shaken quite loose"

"Why you..."

"Hush Caroline, you'll wake the baby," he's laughing at how easy she is to rile and she's laughing too, and then he is serious and his voice is intense with emotion. "Goodnight love, kiss her for me"

"I will. Good luck, you know, killing your mom"

He chuckles darkly and then he's gone, leaving her smiling at how he really hasn't master the art of properly ending a call.

She's still smiling when Stefan reappears to tell her that Bonnie's arrived.

...

 **A/N tune in next time for lots of bloody action. I promise gore galore**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N not sure how i feel about this chapter. I got stuck writing it, hence the delay and skipped over to write some of the later stuff. Writing action is hard. Its difficult to stop it becoming a list of events so I scrapped it and made the whole thing more vague. Hope it doesn't make it impossible to follow.**

 **Anyway let me know what worked and what didn't if you feel so inclined.**

 **RECAP if you need it i realise its been a while. You know i really thought more had happened than this**

 **Chap 1 - Caroline goes to NOLA to comfort Klaus' after hearing loss. He doesn't come clean about hope mainly due to some heavy lurking by the ever gorgeous Elijah**

 **Chap 2 - Caroline and Klaus get a little cosy (and a little smoochy when she finds him upset and painting) but Elijah is mistrustful. Caroline decided to investigate what they are hiding.**

 **Chap 3 - Caroline meets up with Cami and hearing her story makes her think about trying to understand klaus more. Elijah gets wind of her investigations and bullies her into leaving while Klaus is out of the way.**

 **Chap 4 - A full moon. Caroline leaves Klaus a note and leaves as Elijah instructed but Caroline and Cami realise that Elijah is trying to keep them both out of the way. Caroline returns to the compound to find klaus weakened by the moonlight rings. While Elijah and Haley hunt down the rings Caroline and Klaus fight side by side and get a little smoochy (again) in the bloody aftermath. Caroline is remind by the arrival of Cami that that is not a good thing and scarpers back to** **whitmore.**

 **Chap 5 - Klaus finds Caroline's note and calls her arousing her friends' suspicion. She calls him back but tells him she can't be the monster being with him would make her. Later he calls to say he's going to face his farther.**

 **Chap 6 - Desperate to keep hope hidden form their mother Klaus convinces Elijah to call Caroline and ask her to help them. She agrees despite being angry with klaus and not knowing anything about hope**

 **Chap 7 - Caroline heads off to help Klaus only to be presented with Hope (she's a little surprised). Not knowing how else to protect her she returns to Mystic Falls and her friends**

 **On with the tale.**

 **Caroline's POV as usual**

Chapter 8

In the end it's the most human thing that get's them found. For all his power and his determination, all his secrecy and his perfect planning it is Klaus' humanity that is the architect of their discovery.

She blames herself. She had sown the seed the first night she'd had Hope. What a lovely thing she'd thought, to let him hear his daughters breathing as she slept. He'd called each night in the week that followed, the week he has spent battling his brother.

She remembers the clumsy embarrassed way he'd asked the first time. He'd called to tell her that they had defeated his mother and while Esther languished in transition, and reaped what she sowed a millennia before, Finn still threatened them. "It won't be long," he'd said, so confidently she'd believed it without question. "Without my mother at his side Finn won't be too much trouble. Don't worry love you won't be playing baby sitter much longer."

She'd told him about Bonnie and the cloaking spell the witch cast to hide his daughter. Had not told him about the long hard conversations she'd had to have to get everyone on board, the number of times she'd had to remind them that Hope is an innocent.

"She did it then?" he'd said with the light tone of the happily victorious. "Perhaps she's warming up to me"

She'd scoffed and he'd laughed and then he'd fallen silent and she'd sensed he'd wanted to ask for something but hadn't known how. "Could I…" he'd fumbled. "Is she sleeping? Maybe, could…"

"You wanna say goodnight?" she'd felt her heart melting like ice cream, sweet and sticky, all over her good sense. He'd answered with a simple hushed "yes" and listened in silence to the baby's quiet rhythmic breath until she'd needed the bathroom so badly she'd had to end the call.

That was seven days ago and every night since then he's called on some pretext, a status report, or to rant about one or other of his brothers, or just to talk to her for a little while. But she's known why he really calls and so at the end of each call, without being asked, she lays her phone alongside Hope's cot and lets him be close to her for a few minutes.

She's out in town picking up groceries when her phone rings, 'number unknown' in the middle of the day setting alarm bell ringing deafeningly in her head.

"Caroline" it's Klaus' voice charged with urgency. "Finn's coming, he knows where you are. Haley and I are on are way but he has a head start, you need to get her out of there"

"Oh shit. What happened?" she's running out of the store and back to her car desperate to get back to the boarding house where Elena and Damon are watching Hope.

"He stole my bloody phone" Klaus growls and she can tell he's furious with himself that he slipped up. That Finn didn't even need his reclaimed magic to break his secret. It's so pedestrian.

"I'll get her out of here don't worry. Just hurry up ok"

…..

She bursts into the boarding house to find Damon lying on the floor, Hope propped up on a bank of cushions next to him. He's shaking a brightly coloured jangling toy in front of her face while she gurgles happily. Damon Salvatore, she has been shocked, and yet not, he is so adaptable after all, by how it has been him who's taken most easily to their shared, and bless them all it has been shared, responsibility for Hope.

"Just in time, she smells" he comments, not noticing her agitation. Sure Damon's been a dream with feeds and stories, and he's like a magician at bedtime, but he draws the line at dirty diapers.

"Finn's coming"

"What?" Elena asks as she vamps in form the kitchen and scoops up Hope. "What do we do? Do we run?"

"How long do we have?" Damon asks.

" I don't know. Not long. We have to move fast"

"Too late," Stefan bursts in, unusually animated for him. "There are wolves in the forest"

"Shit" she swears. If they run now the wolves will give chase. Finn is presumably nearby, it's only a matter of time before they are found.

"Get Bonnie. We'll have to make a stand here." Stefan decided and his brother nods.

"I've faced these wolves," she warns, remembering the brief battle in New Orleans. "With these rings they're as strong as we are."

"Well good job we're prepared then." Damon says opening a large chest. Inside is an arsenal, Alaric's she guesses, all sorts of crossbows and guns and what she sincerely hopes is a good stash of wolfs-bane grenades. Damon gives one a shake and grins. "This'll slow them down no matter how tough those rings make them."

Fifteen minutes later and they're ready, or at least as ready as they can possibly be. Windows barricaded, weapons at the ready.

Bonnie has just finished chanting, a protection spell merged with a confusion spell, hopefully it will disorientate the wolves enough to give the vampires a fighting chance.

"This is crazy," Bonnie sighs. "I can't believe we're doing this for Klaus"

"Klaus is a colossal dick," Damon agrees. "And for those of you who haven't experienced the raging good time that is near death by werewolf bite, can I just say I'm with the witch on this"

"We're not doing this for Klaus, we're doing it for Hope." Elena corrects them. She has doted on the child since she arrived and it breaks her heart to see her friend's oh so obvious longing. Poor Elena, she'd always wanted a family, motherhood had been part of all her future plans. Immortality and Damon don't seem a very good swap for that lost dream. "It's not her fault her dad's a…"

"Jackass?" She offers. "But he is on his way so don't worry about wolf bites, he'll cure you. Just like he cured you before," she challenges Damon to deny it. "Twice"

She knows Damon doesn't really have any intention of handing over Hope, but he's Damon and he's just got to question their do-gooder ways. No one takes him seriously and she senses he's fine with that. He can role his eyes and play the cynic, and the bad boy, to his hearts content, confident that the worst of himself will always be suppressed by the good in him that Elena's endless love quietly demands.

"Fine" the elder Salvatore gives one of his extravagant gestures of capitulation complete with eye roll.

She turns her questioning eyes to Bonnie, she has to know they're all in this one hundred percent. "Are we good?"

"Of course" Bonnie sets her jaw and her power and goodness shine through her eyes. She ashamed to have doubted either. "Lets do this"

The wolves come in human form. They circle the house, sniffing them out, looking for an easy way in and waiting. It seems like hours, it's probably no more than fifteen minutes.

"Vampires of Mystic Falls" finally Finn has arrived and is making a typically dramatic Mikaelson entrance. "I have no quarrel with any one of you."

"Ask yourselves why you would die for my brother." He continues, his voice raised but no where near a shout. "Who is surely as vile a creature as is even imaginable."

She runs her tongue over her burgeoning fangs, doesn't even let her mind process the hypocrisy of calling anyone vile when you're trying to kill a baby. It won't help to be angry, no matter how righteous it may be.

The body Finn has taken over is handsome and lean and his voice is rich and interesting. She imagines the rightful owner is charismatic. Finn is not. He is as vile, and as pompous and boring, as any other zealot. "Give me the child," he continues. "And I will graciously allow your parasitic existences to continue. Deny me and I promise you I will destroy every one of you who dares stand against me"

"Oh will you shut up" Damon calls out in irritation. They're supposed to be stalling, buying time until the cavalry, in the form of two furious hybrids, arrives. But Damon being Damon has to provoke the witch. "You know, much as I hate your dick of a brother I'm beginning to see why Klaus kept you in a box"

"My brother will pay for his many crimes soon enough" Finn assures them. "But you won't be alive to witness it."

His voice is quieter as he turns to his wolves outside but the vampires still hear it clearly. "Well?"

"Four vamps," a country accent informs him. "Shouldn't be a problem but they got a witch too"

"I will deal with the witch." Finn orders. "Kill the vampires and bring me the child alive"

The wolves hurl themselves at the large bay window, shaking Bonnie's spell but leaving the glass in tact. The confusion spell is working too, they would be so screwed without Bonnie, and the wolves lose direction and purpose when they near the house.

Finn looks angry and, raising his hands a little from his sides, begins to chant. Bonnie's eyes widen and she responds with chanting of her own but it cuts off and her nose bleeds a little. "He's trying to make a hole in the barrier spell," the witch gasps out. "He's strong"

"So are you Bon-bon" Damon tells her. "Dig deep now"

Bonnie nods and begins chanting again but Finn is powerful and Bonnie shakes with the effort of keeping him out.

A barrier shimmers visibly around the window and a handful of werewolves burst through before Bonnie can slam the magical door shut. Glass shatters in their wake and they growl and charge the vampires. Stefan vamps forward and they all follow suit. The wolves have strength but the vamps have the speed and with only four in the room they can flash around the group and snap their necks.

Bonnie gasps. "I can't keep him out"

"Then take him out" Stefan places a hand on the witch's shoulder in support. "We'll handle the wolves"

Bonnie stops focusing on the barrier and turns her attention to a one-on-one witchy smack down with Finn. The wolves come then, bursting through the crumbling barrier and straight into a barrage of fire from Alaric's best weaponry.

The yelp and whine like dogs as the wolf's bane hits them and their attack is broken up enough to employ some vamp speed in taking a handful out, but their numbers are far superior, they seem to come and come.

For all their weapons and for all that they are still harder to kill than the wolves this is a losing fight and a painful one. Some come in wolf form dripping poison from their jaws others wield stakes and they are losing. Worse still, Bonnie is losing.

As she snaps the neck of a wolf and hurls the limp body at another of its pack she sees Bonnie stumble backwards as Finn's incantations pound her body. Elena sees it too and vamps over to their old friend. "Grab Hope" she hears Elena tell the witch before she makes a brave, fruitless, attempt to tackle Finn head on.

Bonne does as she's told ignoring Elena's pitiful scream of pain as Finn fries her brain with his magic. The baby cries for the first time as Bonnie reaches into her cubby hole and their enemies turn as one to the sound.

"Grab it" Finn yells as Bonnie gathers Hope protectively in her arms.

They're going to fail. A wolf sinks human-ish teeth into her shoulder and she barely feels it. Hope is going to die. Finn and his wolves are too strong and Klaus is too late.

She's just a baby her mind cries desperately as she sinks down, defeated, under the wolf's attack.

After a second of wallowing in their defeat she realises that everything is still. She looks up and the tableau is not what she expects.

Their vamp's are all down. Elena's neck broken effortlessly by a snap of Finn's fingers and Stefan broken and bleeding on his side against wall. Only Damon isn't quite beaten, he's a worthless shit in so many ways but he doesn't go down without a fight. He's cut and poisoned and half dead but he's still struggling futilely against a pair of burly wolves who have him pinned down.

But the kill isn't coming. Everything is still, the eyes oft the pack are on their leader and the witch facing him. Bonnie is chanting again, Hope in her arms, innocent eyes open, dark and calm.

Suddenly she realises that Hope is more than the sweet infant who likes bathtime and Damon's singing voice, who won't stay still for a diaper change or go to sleep without her special blanket. She is Esther's granddaughter, Klaus' child; she is the miracle baby. She realises suddenly why they all wanted her so much; she has so much power.

Bonnie channels that power and with it she is more than a match for Finn. He fights back with all the strength of the desperate but Hope snuggles closer to Bonnie and with a flick of the witches hand it is over and Finn lies dead.

For long minutes the wolves seem dumbfounded. Their leader is gone and she prays they'll turn tail and flee. But taking out Finn has sent Bonnie, finally exhausted, to her knees and the rest of them are easy pickings. There is nothing here to flee from.

A wolf in a plaid shirt steps forward, assuming responsibility in the wake of Finn's death, and makes a play to be their Alpha. "Take the child," he barks. "It'll be leverage"

"Oh I wouldn't advise that." That voice, she exhales with relief at the welcome sound of it. The tone, light and conversational, making the murder below its tranquil surface all the more chilling.

"The hybrid" one of the wolves observes unnecessarily and she lets that be confirmation enough that he is not an hallucination. She relaxes and drags herself back towards the others to watch the inevitable.

"Hybrids, actually" Haley steps up beside Klaus looking far less controlled than the Original. "Now get the hell away form my daughter"

Plaid shirt raises his hands in surrender and Klaus smirks. "They're your people Haley" Klaus tilts his head towards the furious brunette at his side. "What do you say?"

Haley doesn't hesitate or take her eyes off the wolves as her twin fangs drop. "Kill them all"

Klaus smiles around his own matching fangs and if the wolves think that odds of fifteen to one will be enough they are about to realize how wrong they are.

Haley makes a full frontal assault on the pack and meanwhile Klaus takes two bounding steps, kicks off the wall and hurtles towards the wolf nearest them where they've dragged themselves to huddle around Hope against the back wall. As he leaps she fancies she sees the bones of his forearms stretch into claws to messily gouge the heart from his enemies chest.

She glances back at Haley and sees her jaws extend, muzzle like, as she rips out plaid shirt's throat. Klaus bounds towards his next victim, his hands slamming down on the floor before he leaps, the curve of his back not altogether human.

They are terrible, bestial, and beautiful. She's seen him kill before but this is different, animal. Perhaps he draws on the wolf at will or perhaps, here facing his own kind with his own blood threatened, it is that his true nature cannot be contained.

Haley shows more beast than he does, she is grotesquely beautiful, grey fur over her clawed hands, elongated jaws dripping blood. The hybrids. They are abominations even among the monsters of their supernatural world, and yet they are also parents and their rage, their vengeance, is just and human.

A wolf tries to run and Klaus lands on her back and savages her throat growling loudly as he throws back his head and sends a spray of blood arcing through the air to splatter the wall.

None of them can do anything but watch and cling to each other, Bonnie at their centre with Hope cradled, quiet and unafraid, in her arms as her parents tear bloody revenge into those that would have hurt her.

Finally the last wolf dies at Haley's feet choking on the blood pouring from his own ruined throat. The hybrids stand side by side, painted in the red of their righteous victory.

They turn as one and Haley moves slowly towards them, Klaus a fraction off her shoulder, both pairs of eyes human again and riveted to the child in Bonnie's arms. Their bleeding group parts to make way and Haley raises her arms tentatively to take her baby.

Haley clings to Hope for a moment taking long shuddering breaths before turning to Klaus, they cradle the child between them and when she gurgles and bats at her father's bloodied face the two hybrids eyes meet over her head in shared joy and they laugh. They are so like any other new parents, that you could, if not for their bloodied state, forget that they are monsters.

Haley transfers Hope awkwardly to Klaus' arms and he takes her and lays his lips on her forehead. He closes his eyes and holds his daughter for the first time in months and he is still, utterly still. All his power and his rage and paranoia are gone and he simply is.

His redemption is tantalizingly possible in this second, and she is terrified of how she yearns to help him find it. She looks away because the moment is private and sweet and he is so beautiful that she can feel herself slipping away into the dream of what he could be were he not so tied to being himself.

"Is there somewhere we can get her cleaned up?" Haley asks and Elena, awake and rubbing her neck in Damon's arms, is the first to break their silence and point them to Hope's room.

Klaus picks up a pair of crystal glasses from the mantle that somehow survived the battle and bites his own wrist to fill each one with his healing blood. He moves to follow Haley but stops on the stairs and turns to the disheveled group.

"Thank you," he says and she thinks that will be all but he takes in a deep breath and continues. "You protected my daughter. This is a debt that cannot ever be fully repaid. But know this, whatever enemies you face, whatever threatens you, my family and I will stand by you. Each of you, always and forever"

Then he is gone and they are all still for a moment before Damon breaks ranks and limps gingerly over to grasp the glasses that will heal the agonising bites.

"Original protection for the rest of forever" Damon gives a contemplative nod and slugs back half a glass of Klaus' blood. "Not bad for a bit of babysitting"

"Last time I babysat I got ten bucks" Elena comments dryly, her voice hoarse from her ordeal.

They all chuckle, releasing the tension and the fear in a ripple of nervous laughter.

"Drink up," Damon orders and hands her and Elena a glass each. They both take what they need to heal. His blood tastes familiar on her tongue and she savours the metallic flavour, richer than human blood but more bitter.

"Yuch" Elena grimaces and hands the glass to Stefan. Meanwhile she holds the liquid in her own mouth a little longer to taste the burn of ancient power and untamed beast, the taste of him.

She takes another lingering sip and shrugs to herself, maybe it's an acquired taste.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Oh yea of little faith. Have a little trust in your author and your OTP. The course of true love does never run smooth**

 **Also a request. Any good Klaroline fic recs? I'm pretty new to the fandom. I like fic pretty true to canon but did read my first AU/AH fic the other day so if you know of exceptionally good ones rec me those too. Cheers me dears**

 **hope this chap appeases worldwarIII :-) x**

Chapter 9

"Why won't she stop crying?" Haley sounds desperate and she peers unnoticed around the door to watch the young hybrid bouncing her daughter almost frantically.

"Easy" Klaus steps forward and stops her with both hands on her shoulders. He takes the baby and lays her against his shoulder, rhythmically patting her bottom gently. Hope settles quickly and Haley looks distraught.

"Oh god, I am the worst mother in the world"

"Nonsense," Klaus' free hand catches Haley's chin and tilts her face to look at him as he speaks. "You just need a little practice"

The young hybrid nods, unconvinced, and tries to drop her gaze but Klaus weaves like a boxer to catch her eye again. She should slip away, she shouldn't be watching their tender exchange, it feels voyeuristic but she can't help it.

"Enjoy her tonight, little wolf," Klaus murmurs gently as he transfers the half sleeping baby to her mother's arms and runs his hands over her upper arms. Jealousy stabs brutally at her chest, she knew they shared a child she hadn't thought they shared such togetherness.

"Tomorrow" Klaus continues. "Go back and make the city safe. I will bring our daughter home for the wedding." He smirks but it isn't cruel it is playful and full of a shared knowing. "Queen"

Wedding? Jesus, they're getting married. She feels like her heart just dropped out of her chest to pound sluggishly in the pit of her stomach. They can't be, he was kissing her just a handful of weeks ago wasn't he?

But thinking back it was her who initiated those kisses and he who halted them. Oh god. She burns with hurt and humiliation. Did she misread everything? Was she so confident in his affection, so conceited? She plaster's herself into the dark nook behind her as Haley slips away with Hope. She really doesn't want to be caught snooping right now, not with her emotions sloshing about in her body like filthy water in a bucket.

Haley is too wrapped up in her child to notice her and she mentally sighs in silent relief.

"You can come out now love." His amused slightly mocking tone makes her cringe.

Shit, shit, shit, her mind whirrs in search of an excuse as she steps into the room desperately trying to not to look as mortified as she feels. "I heard Hope crying," she explains and he nods.

"I think Haley's mothering instincts have been dulled by separation" Klaus muses with an amused half smile.

"I'm sure she'll do great once she gets her home. We were like that a week ago and now we're all complete pros." She's proud of how steady her voice is, by what a good job she's doing of not letting him see how much what she has heard has shaken her.

He nods again, contemplatively, and then he turns to her and flashes her one of his bright boyish smiles that can make her forget the thousand years of bloodshed it conceals.

"Caroline" he beams. "My savior, my hero. Have a drink with me"

She shakes her head. "It's late"

"Nonsense" he cajoles already moving to snatch Damon's best bourbon. "Go on, love. One drink. To celebrate our victory"

Actually the amber liquid looks really very tempting given the bombshell she just eavesdropped her way into hearing land. Besides there's a part of her, the same part that used to pick endlessly at scabs when she was a child, the same neurotic part that over analysed every word out of Matt's mouth all those years ago, that wants to find out every last God damn thing about this wedding.

She watches him throw himself down on the sofa, takes in the easy graceful lines of his body that make him so compelling to look at. God he's getting married. "So a wedding," she says a little too loudly. Bull by the horns, that's the Caroline Forbes way she thinks. "That's great"

She sounds bitter and not at all like she thinks its great but he doesn't seem to notice, he's obviously overjoyed.

"Indeed," he wags a finger, "and though it may be mostly for Hope's sake, I still intend to make it an occasion fit for a werewolf queen"

"Queen Haley" she lifts an eyebrow and scoffs bitterly as she sinks, exhausted, to sit beside him.

"Oh don't mock love" Klaus smirks playfully. "The little wolf is the last alpha of a royal blood line, and when she marries Jackson and unites the packs she will have an army to protect our child."

Her face must register her utter confusion because he elaborates. "Jackson, our dear Haley's betrothed, unearthed an ancient werewolf bonding ceremony. Once they are married all the wolves in her pack will share her hybrid gifts. They'll control their transition and they will protect Hope as one of their own. New Orleans will be safe again and we can bring our daughter home"

"Wow." Her heart pounds out a joyful tattoo. He's not getting married, he's not getting married, he's not getting married. Her mind runs it over and over and she can't contain the small laugh that bubbles from her lips.

"Something funny Caroline?" he asks with glinting eyes.

"Nope" she grins. "I just can't figure Haley as a Queen. I thought she was just a skank who liked macking on my boyfriends"

His eyebrows shoot up at her slip. "Boyfriends love?"

She rolls her eyes and feels her feet hit familiar ground. "Urgh don't flatter yourself"

His lips twitch in amusement but he choses to let the moment go. "Haley is not what you remember. She's powerful and more moral than suits my tastes, but loyal and a fierce mother as you have seen."

"Sounds like you might actually trust her"

"I do," his agreement surprises her. "She's family now, a Mikaelson, if not in name in spirit"

"Oh god poor Haley, now I just feel sorry for her." She jokes, the last lingering traces of jealousy disappearing at the fond familial tone with which he talks about Haley.

He does that thing with his eyes, not a roll exactly just a flash up and to the side, it's really very sexy she thinks as she swigs her drink and he refills it fluidly.

"Thank you" he says softly looking down into his own glass.

Her glass is suddenly pretty interesting too. "Yeah. We did good, and now we have the sworn protection of the Originals. I think we all got a good deal with this one"

"No Caroline" he turns to look at her now. "Thank you"

He seems unable to hold her gaze and his eyes find their way to his drink again. "I do realise that I'm difficult," he admits. "I know I'm not an easy person to care about"

She chuckles. "Understatement of the century Klaus"

He nods but doesn't laugh. Instead he lays his hand over hers and looks up at her again. "And yet you came. When you knew I needed you. When I asked for your help. You came. I had not expected, had not hoped… "

She swallows hard. She wants to lighten the mood, make a joke, put him down, something, anything other than just staring at him with her heart pounding riotously against her ribs and every nerve in her body shutting off so only the place where his fingers lie against hers is alive with feeling.

Shit, she thinks, she's going to kiss him again. Yet again it's going to be her jumping in, just like New Orleans, just like the forest. Sure he's been persistent and he's made no secret of his feelings for her but she's the one who always crosses the distance between them.

Her body is moving of its own volition, eyes riveted to his as she leans closer until their lips are a breath apart, she hesitates for just a second but she can't stop now, she is sucked into his eyes, magnetized to his lips.

His lips part immediately under hers, gently surrendering, and they kiss long and deep and languid. His fingertips trail over her cheeks and down to her jaw. He traces the outline of her ears, explores her hairline, her collarbones, with a barely there touch that makes her body feel slack and boneless. She loses her ability to hold herself up and they slip down, kiss never breaking, onto the large sofa side-by-side, their bodies touching but not pressed together.

She can feel his erection against her thigh but he doesn't move to pull her to him or strip her cloths. He just kisses her, as her hands mirror his, never dropping below the neck, combing through the stubble, a little longer than she likes it, on his chin and through his short hair.

She thinks she will let him set the pace but after an eternity of exploring each other's mouths she realises that this isn't foreplay, this is his endgame, to kiss her until one of them falls asleep.

Part of her wishes he'd just rip off her clothes and fuck her right there, partly because her body is screaming for it, but perhaps more because this lazy endless kissing is affording her far too much time to think. To think about him, as if she could think about anything else with his tongue stroking her teeth, and how god damn good it feels to kiss him.

She thinks about New Orleans and the lies he'd told her there, she's angry and she's not, she gets that Hope is bigger in his world than she is and that's ok, that's good. She thinks about how gently he'd held his child, how clear his love had been written on his face when he'd kissed her soft head. She thinks about the jealousy that had crawled up her throat when she'd jumped to conclusions about whom Haley would be marrying.

He kisses her and her body goes away, leaving her mind with nowhere to run to but him. She thinks of his wickedness and he soothes it away with his lips, she thinks of the danger he brings and his circling fingertips make her safe. She thinks her heart is losing its way and his tongue tells her that everything will be ok.

Finally her body comes back, urgent for more and she whimpers pleadingly into his mouth. He relents, slips one hand between their bodies and into her pajama bottoms. He presses expertly against her wet pussy, just a few firm tweaks that make her orgasm quietly, a gentle shivering release that won't rock her world but certainly shakes her heart. Oh god she thinks as she falls asleep in his arms, she's going to end up in love with him if she carries on like this.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N uh oh a bump in the road**

Chapter 10

"Mmmmmm" she hums lazily and turns in his arms, pulling his free arm over her as she goes so she's spooned against him. He tightens the hold without really waking up and makes a low contented noise. She's not awake enough yet to process anything other than his warmth behind her and the warmth of her own happiness spreading our from every point their bodies touch.

She sighs and snuggles against him smiling slightly as she opens her eyes to a sudden coldness splashing over her. Elena stands in the doorway, not shocked, perhaps she's been there a while, but frozen with something like disbelief and icy anger.

"Elena" she sits up quickly rousing Klaus behind her.

Elena turns sharply on her heel and disappears.

"Oh God"" she mutters burying her head in her hands.

Behind her Klaus is awake now, he lifts himself up and touches her shoulder. 'Are you alright love?"

She shakes her head.

"You shouldn't let them…" he begins.

"Don't ok" she stops him and stands sharply, dislodging his hand. Her nervousness comes out, as usual, as irritation with him. "Seriously just let me handle this"

He lifts both hands in surrender and stands himself a little angrily. "Fine," he stalks off towards Hope's room and she watches his back regretfully for a moment before squaring her shoulders and heading to the kitchen and Elena's judgment.

"That wasn't what it looked like" she opens as she slips into the stool opposite where Elena is warming blood in the microwave.

"What wasn't what it looked like?" Bonnie's voice comes from the doorway behind her and she closes her eyes. Great.

"Caroline sleeping with Klaus." Elena turns to them, forgetting her breakfast.

"Again?" Bonnie asks in angry disbelief.

"No! I told you it wasn't what it looked like. I didn't have sex with him, okay."

"No it was worse, don't you see that? You were actually sleeping with him, Care, cuddling, with Klaus." Elena runs her hands through her ever-perfect hair agitatedly. "Like he's your boyfriend or something. Like he's an actual person"

"Seriously? Elena, way to overreact" she presses her hands to either side of her head. "You may have noticed that everyone had a pretty rough day yesterday. I didn't want to be alone and he was there"

"That's always your excuse Care." Bonnie chimes in. "'He was there'. It doesn't make it ok"

Their judgment is like physical blows against her tired body and she slumps a little in her seat.

"Are you in love with him?" Elena asks directly and she startles.

"No God. Of course not Elena that's insane, it's Klaus" Her eyes travel to the doorway as she denies him and there he is because evidently universe hates her today.

She holds his wounded eyes, torn between the pain she sees in them and the inquisition of her friends. His jaw clenches and his eyes go hard for a moment before he turns away leaving her sorry and helplessly staring at the spot where he stood.

"Have you totally lost your mind?" Bonnie snaps her back into the room with a painful jolt. "He gives you those big sad eyes and you just forget he's a killer"

"He killed Jenna" Elena picks up the assault. "And Tyler's mom and so many others. Care, how many orphans has he made?"

Enough of this, enough already with this barrage of recrimination. Her temper snaps, "How many has Damon?"

Elena rocks back as if physically pushed by her harsh tone. "You cannot possibly be comparing Klaus to Damon"

"Why not?" she bowed her head and took their condemnation last time she's not about to do it again, not when they're all neck deep in the same crap. "Damon's a killer too Elena and he's not sorry."

"Damon…" Elena begins but trails off unable to deny the truth.

"Exactly" she doesn't feel victorious the truth is pretty damn depressing after all. "We all forgive and forget with Damon because you love him?"

"Care Klaus is way worse than Damon," says Bonnie affronted, and didn't she hate Damon herself not so long ago?

"Worse? Better? Seriously? We're vampires we're all varying degrees of terrible." She's on a roll now. "If I were in love with him, which I am not, would he get a pass like Damon?"

They both look at her a little bewildered, somehow she has turned their assault around and she's on the offensive

"No didn't think so, I mean is it even about Klaus or Damon at all? Maybe it's just that Elena's happiness counts more than everyone else's." She doesn't know where this is coming from but it's no doubt been coming for a long while. "It certainly always counted more than mine."

She turns and strides out.

…..

She finds him outside cradling Hope in his arms and watching Haley drive away. She wants to say she's sorry, because she is. Her denial of him seems such a cruel, dishonest, blow after last night.

But last night makes everything harder, especially 'sorry'. She's kissed him before, she's wanted him and touched him and had him before, but last night was different. Intimate in a way sex, with all its carnal wanting, cannot be. That intimacy had almost destroyed her defences last night and today she must rebuild them.

He moves to pass her and return to the house. "Klaus…" she begins not knowing what else to say.

He closes his eyes briefly and she can see he's trying to control his anger. "Not now Caroline" he hisses.

"Seriously? Klaus come on, don't pout ok. " She flicks her hair over her shoulder, she's just stood up to her friends for him which took some serious guts, so he can just stop acting like a child.

He doesn't relent. "Caroline, I have a good deal to do before I can return home, weddings to organise, alliances to cement, murders to plan." He is really angry now and she can see all his ugly pettiness. "Go back inside, don't you have friends to lie to in there?"

"Klaus, look I…" suddenly her mind catches up with what he said. "Wait, hang on, murders? Who's getting murdered?"

"Not that it's any concern of yours Caroline but I cannot simply allow Jackson to lead the wolves. If I am to use that army to protect Hope they must answer to me"

"Is Jackson" she searches for the correct label, fails. "erm, bad?"

Klaus raises and eyebrow. "No Jackson is a good man. He has integrity and honour, under different circumstances I'm sure I would consider him a fine leader"

"Then why kill him?" She's forgotten she's here to make a mends and she's pushing him again. "He and Haley can make sure the pack protects Hope"

"And have anther vying for kingship in my city?" He shakes his head. "Have my daughter grow to call another father"

"Oh my God, that's what this is about, you're scared Hope will like him more?"

He strokes Hope's head and narrow's his eyes at her and she knows she's right. "You said he's a good man, you should want a man like that in her life, but you're so unbelievably insecure that you'd rather kill him than risk she'd prefer him to you"

He glares at her and his silence is confirmation enough.

"That is so pathetic"

"Its no business of yours is it now love?" the endearment that has melted her heart in the past feels like ice creeping over it now. To be loved by him feels like guilt by association. "You made that quite clear"

He goes and she's glad, her defences are impenetrable now. She remembers why she built them in the first place. Klaus Mikaelson is damaged, paranoid, murderous and vindictive. Suddenly she believes the lie she told Elena, no she does not love him; 'that's insane, it's Klaus'

She stands looking at nothing and hating herself for being fool enough to open herself up to him and all the disappointment she should have known would come for hoping, once again, that he can be fixed.

"Carebear" Damon's mocking voice makes her cringe; she really can't be bothered with him right now.

"What do you want Damon?" She asks tiredly

"Hear you've been upsetting my girl"

"Oh just back off Damon" he's an easy target for her pent up emotions. "Elena and I both said some things we shouldn't have but she's my best friend and we can sort this out ourselves. We don't need you swooping in making everything worse, ok"

He shrugs and changes tack. "So you and Klaus, getting all snuggly on my couch? Do I need to hire a steam cleaner? Because the last thing I want is to find myself sitting in hybrid spunk."

"Jees Damon, gross" she rolls her eyes, he's such an ass. "I told them, I didn't screw him ok, we were just…"

She trails of because Damon's eyes are sharp and knowing, she's always has had the unsettling feeling that Damon sees everything. "Just?" he prompts.

"Sleeping," she supplies weakly.

"Careful Blondie" Damon says sharply. "Might not be smart to get the conscienceless killer's hopes up"

"I guess not" she glares at him. "They could do something terrible, like, say, snap Jeremy's neck. Oh no that was you"

He shrugs, like its not important.

"I'm getting preached at from all sides about spooning with Klaus while somehow Elena being all 'epic love'" yes she makes air-quotes too because she's too frustrated to worry about how lame that is, "with you is not a problem."

"Klaus is a dick." Damon states as if that ends the argument.

"So are you if you hadn't noticed, and seriously, where's your conscience?"

"Don't need one" He makes a dismissive shrugging gesture. "I have Elena"

Is that it? Why they all trust remorseless amoral Damon, because he has a conscience in the form of Elena Gilbert gently whispering to his heart. Is Elena in all her goodness the guarantor of his morality?

What a burden, she thinks, to bear another's integrity as well as your own.

"Now go and apologies to Elena" Damon is telling her and she returns her attention to him. "Because maybe you're right maybe me and Stefan and even Bonnie do think her happiness counts more than yours, but do you know who never, ever, thought that?"

She nods, of course she does. "Elena"

"Yes, now go"

…..

"Hey" she steps tentatively into Damon's room where Elena lies on her stomach on his bed reading a textbook.

"Care" the brunette get's hurriedly up and comes to her with hands reaching pleadingly forward. "I'm so sorry, I never thought-"

"I know. Elena. I know" she takes Elena's outstretched hands in both of hers and smiles a watery smile. "I'm sorry too"

"I should be supportive," Elena says with a determined nod, and God bless her she would be even in this. "And if its what you want then I will be even though Klaus is, you know, Klaus"

She shakes her head and they sit down together on the bed. "Don't worry Elena, he's just done a great job of reminding me why I was right, I couldn't love him. He's too," she frowns. "Broken I guess, too far gone."

Elena's listening, she's dialed back the judgment to listen to her friend. "I keep getting sucked in to thinking, hoping, that he can be fixed, you know, but he can't"

"Some people are just irredeemable Care," Elena says gently. "No matter what you do, they just don't have any humanity"

"But that's the problem, he does. I know he's done terrible terrible things, but he's not like Makael or Finn, he's not just a shell. He get's hurt and he loves and he protects his family. Every time I see that, I see humanity and I catch myself hoping…"

"You want to save him" Elena state with some understanding, they are in basically the same boat after all.

"I do. I know it's impossible. But I think he wants to be saved, somewhere under everything and that makes me want to try." She hold's Elena's hand as she speaks, it feels wonderful to be able to talk about this with her friend. She'd been silent about him for so long.

"Well I guess I saved Damon" Elena offers

"I guess you did," she smiles warmly. "But you're Elena Gilbert, shining beacon of love and compassion. I'm Caroline Forbes bitchy control freak"

She stops Elena's predictable protest before it leaves her friend's lips. "And besides" she continues, "Damon's severe emotional deficiencies are nothing compared to the thousand years of damaged goods that is Klaus Mikaelson."

She scrubs her face. "I just need to get away from him, get back to college, get my head clear and move on"

"Yes" Elena says decisively then she looks sheepish. "But can we just pause that for a little while, just twenty four hours maybe?"

"Elena what did you do?"

"I kinda convinced Klaus to stay here until Rebekah comes to collect him" her friend admits looking guilty.

"You did what?" she pauses to bring her voice down a few decibels and octaves. "Why would you do that?"

"Well I thought the mansion was all cold and shut up, it might be damp for Hope, and it's not like he knows what he's doing, she might need us"

She sighs, knowing exactly what has happened here. "You just wanted to keep her a little longer?" she says feeling very perceptive.

"Yes I'm sorry, I just couldn't bear to say goodbye to her. Please stay here with us"

"Elena" she whines. "Distance"

"I know I know, but Klaus is volatile and violent and Damon is really annoying," the brunette grimaces slightly before she delivers her winning argument. "Someone could die"

...

 **A/N sorry please don't run away form this story screaming "it's not Klaroline". It is I promise and chapter 11 is almost written and has Rebekah in it and some Klaus and Caroline softening up, I may even through in some smooches, who knows**

Do you know what's nice? Reviews are nice. Just saying :-P


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N this chapter** **contains the C-word you have been warned**

Chapter 11

She manages to avoid him for most of the day, but when she passes Hope's room in the late afternoon and hears him talking baby nonsense to the infant she pauses to listens, guiltily knowing he'd be mortified to be caught choochy-cooing even to his own daughter.

Elena asks if she can put Hope to bed and he allows it, secretly grateful she imagines, and she and Elena enjoy a last chance to bath and settle Hope for the night. Elena is a tragic figure lavishing the baby with affection and pretending it doesn't break her heart, while downstairs she hears him drinking with Damon, they snark benignly enough at one another while Stefan patiently tries to keep the peace.

She goes to bed early without risking going downstairs, its hard enough to control the pull of his accented voice even from the confines of her room, if she sees him she's not sure she won't end up in his arms again despite her resolve of the morning.

She doesn't sleep well. Even after the boys finally stop drinking and the house falls silent she lies awake and reaches her vampire hearing out into the quiet darkness to where she knows she'll find him; four doors down on the right, and yes she does know it's a bad sign that she's counted.

She hears him mumble soft loving words to Hope and her heart flutters lightly against the walls of her control, when she hears his shower run her body pounds against them like a lunatic in an asylum. She slams her eyes shut and wills sleep to come, she has her pride and she will not under any circumstances lie there fingering herself and thinking about him in the shower. Sleep doesn't come and as for her pride, pride is a sin after all.

There's no one around when she wakes up late and stumbles downstairs for breakfast. The house is empty except for him in the kitchen spooning formula into plastic bottles. She thinks about walking straight back out but she can see he has the wrong teats laid out, and if he feeds Hope with those slow flow ones she'll bring the house down.

So she tells him so, second-guessing herself for even being in the same room with him. She'd told Elena that she needs distance from him and she can't even stop herself moving round the counter to stand beside him and help prepare Hope's bottles.

"I had time to reflect," he tells her as they wait for the kettle to boil. "About what you said. Jackson, Haley and the wolves would perhaps be good for Hope. I was denied the chance to be part of a pack, she should not be. A pack after all means family to a wolf, it means never having to be alone"

She can barely believe she's hearing this. She remembers when Silas had got in his head "I am reaching out to you and you still can't get out of your own way," she'd screamed at him and he'd fumed at her stubbornly. This is huge for him, to give ground, to take her judgment and instead of responding with anger and violence actually reconsider his actions.

She bashes down hard on the part of her that is trying to break joyfully through at his mercy, while beneath the surface of her control moves her compassion. He is lonely, he has been lonely for a thousand years, a wolf denied a pack, a bastard robbed of family.

"Good" she says firmly, and because she can't cold shoulder this change of heart she continues. "Besides, she'll definitely like you better"

He looks unconvinced, but hopeful so she continues. "You're her dad, just don't try to control her or murder any of her friends and you'll be fine. Plus you'll get to be the cool dad who takes her places and teaches her to paint and, knowing you, buys her ridiculously expensive gifts" she gives him a cheeky smirk. "While Jackson will be the hick step dad who sides with her mom and tells her to tidy her room"

He laughs and pours the water into each bottle in turn. "I like the way you think Caroline, you're almost as evil as I am"

She throws a sassy look his way and their eyes meet for a smiling moment before he turns his head sharply to look out the window. A moment later she too hears the crunch of tiers on gravel as a large black SUV pulls up outside the boarding house. The woman who steps out is a stunning beauty with black ringlets, coffee coloured skin and a familiar over-confident poise to her movements

Klaus grins delightedly at the sight of the stranger and rushes outside with her following curiously behind.

The woman sees them on the steps and strides towards them grinning back at the original.

"Well well well" Klaus greets. "At least you're pretty"

The woman twirls like she's showing off a new dress. "Kol may have been a total tosser sticking me in that bloody witch asylum but he wouldn't dare make me ugly"

She realises who the woman is just as Klaus opens his arms and the two embrace. "Sister"

"Hello Nik," Rebekah pulls back eventually and she can see the Original in every movement of her stolen body. "Now where's my niece?"

Klaus makes to lead the way but Rebekah huffs. "Don't hover Nik, Hope and I have girl time to catch up on, just point"

He shrugs fondly and does as she instructs and they both watch Rebekah's new, and extremely tight, body walk away.

"What happened?" she asks

"I failed," he says his voice blank but his eyes watching intently.

She's smiling, she can feel her traitorous face beaming at him and she lets out a growl of frustration.

"Oh no this is not happening" she makes a swiping no-way gesture with her hands. "You don't get to do this, it's not fair"

He looks confused and poised to be angry again. "Not sure I follow love" he grinds out. "You were the one who suggested I allow Rebekah to pursue this foolish notion of humanity."

"Yes and you did it" she spins around and when she's facing him again her face feels flushed. "And you decided to stop being a insecure dick and let Jackson live."

"Again something you were keen to impress upon me was the right thing to do"

"But you don't do the right thing" she says exasperated. "I had just decided to finally, completely give up on you and now…"

"Now?" he pounces subtly, his tone steady but she fancies his eyes suddenly a little sharper.

She shakes her head and looks down, feeling lost. She can't be his conscience, it's too much, but just a glimmer of possibility that he can change and the call to try and save him is thrumming in her heart again.

He senses weakness, predator that he is, and steps in close lifting her chin so she's looking into his eyes. "And now?" he asks again challenging and hopeful and unsure.

"I don't know," she admits.

His thumb strokes her cheek gently a few times and she leans into it. "Yes you do," he insists softly "and now?"

She doesn't have an answer and she can't look into his eyes anymore it's too much like giving in. She lets out a shaky breath when her falling gaze catches on his lips and her own part expectantly.

"Right I'm taking Hope out for some fresh air," Rebekah's tone is no less brash in her new body as she emerges from the house with Hope snuggled in her buggy. "You two can go back to your canoodling"

"Rebekah" Klaus hisses warningly as he steps away from her.

"What? Oh for God's sakes no one's blind here, just get on with it already before the sexual tension kills one of you."

The hybrid takes a threatening step towards his sister. "Not another word Rebekah or-"

"Or what Nik?" Rebekah isn't daunted by the all-powerful immortal hybrid. "It's not like you can dagger me and stick me in a box now is it?"

"Well actually I could," Klaus retorts with a smile that's nasty all over his face except for in his amused eyes.

"Oh piss off Nik or I'll magic you up a hell of a headache," the now dark skinned Rebekah huffs with a slight quirk of a smile as she turns and wheels Hope off down the drive.

Klaus watches the retreating figures with a quiet fondness to his expression and she has the horrible feeling she's utterly screwed. It's so human this sibling bickering even if the threats are decidedly supernatural. And he gave Rebekah her humanity, and changed his mind about Jackson and his hand is slipping into hers and yes she is utterly screwed.

They stay that way until Rebekah's human ears won't be able to hear them and then he looks at her with a serious unreadable expression.

"Can I make you a promise Caroline Forbes?" he asks in a soft earnest voice and she nods, wondering if she'll even be able to hear it over the hurricane roar of her own blood pounding in her ears.

"Can I promise you that I will try to be better man" He frees himself from her gaze and looks back at the point where Rebekah disappeared. She keeps her eyes on his profile, scared and excited by what he's saying, and somewhere deep inside herself so desperately hopeful. "For Hope's sake, for Rebekah and Elijah. That I will try to be a better man for you."

His eyes come back to hers then and she holds them, feeling her own are probably comically wide. "Would that promise mean anything to you?"

She can't speak, her throat is clogged with feeling and her mind is racing with trepidation and possibility. Finally she nods and forces out a hoarse reply. "It would"

He lifts their joined hands to his lips, and lays a kiss on her knuckles, his eyes never leaving her face as he straightens and brings their hands down, stepping in so their bodies almost touch. He places her hand on his own back and releases it so both of his can cup her face. "I promise" he whispers, his breath caresses her skin and his eyes burn into her. "That I will try to be a better man"

He pauses, tilts his head slightly and runs one hand from her cheek up into her hair. "For you"

And he kisses her, he uses the hand in her hair to angle her head and pull her to his lips. He kisses her and she tumbles head first into the abyss of caring for him all over again. Her other hand has found it's way up his back to hook over his shoulder and she clings to him as he holds her head in both his hands and kisses her with a deep masculine possessiveness that makes her feel light and delicate and powerful all at once.

It's a wonderful feeling but it's not enough, and there is no way in hell she's going to let this turn into another endless romantic kissing marathon. Been there, done that, got the hours of sexual frustration. "House is empty," she gasps between kisses.

He nods into the kiss and she pulls away and leads him by the hand back into the boarding house and towards the stairs. She looks back at him and smiles, it's strange to see him so compliant, willing and happy to go wherever she leads him, do whatever she wants.

"He's mine" the thought flashes teasingly through her mind, making her feel powerful and possessive. She stops on the stairs where she's just a little taller than him and leaning down to kiss him with one hand gripping his and the other lying on his slim waist she feels in control, dominant and sexy.

The thought makes her smile hungrily at him as the pull apart and his eyes darken with suppliant desire. "He's mine," she thinks again and her need for him ratchets up from urgent to desperate. With a tug on his hand and a flash of vampire speed she has them inside her room, he pushes the door shut behind them and she pushes him hard against it. Presses the length of her body demandingly against his as she kisses him messily, teeth and tongues clashing in an uncoordinated dance.

"Caroline," he speaks her name like an invocation, a worshipful petition to the higher power of her sex.

She heeds his prayer, grabs the hem of his borrowed t-shirt and pulls it roughly over his head, her dress follows it immediately to the floor. He must have ripped it she thinks, without annoyance, to have got it off so fast. The sight of her in her underwear seems to awaken his own claim to dominance and in a lightening fast movement he throws her several meters across the room to land with a slight bounce on unmade bed.

He doesn't move to follow, just tips his head and gazes at her for long enough that her lust gives way to embarrassment. "Klaus" she scolds and moves to cover herself with the sheets. "Don't just stare like a big freak, it's creepy"

In a flash he's at the foot of the bed, puling the sheet away before she can hide herself. "You forget love," he says huskily as he places one knee on the bed at her feet "I'm an artist, a lover of beauty. How could I not stop to appreciate a sight such as you?"

He's calling her beautiful and panther crawling up the bed, damn him to hell she's only a girl after all. "Klaus" she whines.

He holds himself above her on one elbow and brushes her hair form her face with his free hand. "Beautiful Caroline" he says. "You have no idea how much I've missed you"

She gives him a small unsure smile lust temporarily taking a back seat to something more profound. "Much as I hate to admit it," she replies honestly, her own fingers traveling over his cheek to toy in his hair. "I may have occasionally missed you too, a little"

He lays a hand on his chest dramatically. "Oh be still my heart," his eyes flash merrily and she knows under the sarcasm he's delighted with her admission.

She slaps at his shoulder and laughs. Somewhere in her mind she registers that he is making it damn near impossible for her to renounce this later. She won't be able to write this off as a moment of madness or a hormone fueled mistake. She has had time to reconsider and opportunity to back out, but more than that he's making it fun and profound and everything sex should be when you do it with someone you truly care about. This isn't just bodies banging together this his two people connecting and that should terrify her.

He grins at her feeble assault and drops his head to place closed mouthed kisses all along her shoulder while his hand drops to play a far less chaste game over the silky skin of her thighs. His lips travel over her throat and to her ear, the kisses becoming wetter and more lingering as his hand skims past her panties and runs over her belly to swiftly remove her bra.

He makes a low moaning sound as his palm settles over her breast and she responds in kind, they're passing the point of no return now, playtime is over and an intensity has settled on the room. She gropes at his back, runs her fingers around the waist band of his jeans, fumbles with the button, losing coordination as his mouth travels down to join his hand in exploring her breasts.

He's still holding his body a few inches above hers as he strokes and sucks and squeezes her tits and her body moves of its own volition, undulating under him in a rhythmic quest for contact, her fingers try again to open his jeans but before she can manage it he's traveling south, trailing kisses down flat belly and over her hip bones to her inner thigh.

Her knickers are gone, torn away by a careless flick of his hand and he teases her with hot kisses on her thighs and hips and belly until she's tangling her fingers in her hair and guiding him towards the aching place between her legs. "Klaus" she hisses half plea, half threat and he relents, turning the attentions of his mouth to her pussy.

Finally, she thinks as her head falls back, eyes closed to trap the sensation within herself, all her senses focused on the licentious movement of his tongue and the maddeningly light pressure of his finger tips dancing from her entrance to her ass and back again.

He choses her ass over her cunt and uses his fingertips to play the nerves around that puckered entrance, god she hadn't realized there was so much feeling there. Meanwhile his mouth works her clit, sucking and licking and nipping until she's writhing and begging, her body thrumming with pleasure and at her centre her unfilled cunt yearning for him.

He sucks hard on her clit making her come long and gasping, her whole body shaking as she grips his head and bucks out her orgasm against his mouth.

He crawls up her body, takes her chin in his hand. "Caroline," she opens her eyes only briefly, still dazed from her orgasm, and then closes them again with a sigh. He gives her chin a little jerk. "Look at me" he demands and when she does his eyes are full of lustful purpose.

His jeans are gone, he's naked above her and the feel of his hard cock poised at her entrance makes her body ache to be filled. She pushes her hips up as he sinks down to meet her, his cock, inch by inch, replacing the void of wanting in her pussy. "My Caroline" he murmurs as he begins to move and she moans at the feeling in her body and the sinking, falling, flying, feeling in her heart.

Is she his? She doesn't know. In the forest he'd fucked her like a man on a mission to blow her mind, and he had, all his ancient power colliding with her body, frantic and fabulous. It had been their one chance together a first and final time and he'd wanted to burn it on her body so she'd never forget him.

Is she his? He must believe she is this time. His power ebbs and flows over her body as he rocks her into delirium, he kisses her slow and deep, exploring, charting, staking claim. This is not the last time this is the first and he has eternity to blow her mind. His lips travel over her throat, "my Caroline" he whispers again and his hands grip her hips as he quickens his pace.

Is she his? Perhaps, perhaps not, but in this moment, in this bedroom, on this day, he is certainly hers. She thrills, deep in the dark essence of what she is, that same essence passed down through a millennia from the darkness at his core, she thrills at the victory.

She flips them suddenly so that without breaking the quickening rhythm he set she's above him, her hands on his chest. "My Niklaus," she claims him as she rides him, his full name like a bond of ownership.

Her words stirs something in him and his eyes go gold and feral. A lupine growl rumbles from deep inside his chest, she feels it vibrating through their bodies as he grabs her hips with bruising fingers and holds her as he drives into her from below. She rides it out reveling in the feeling of him losing control beneath her and her own control slips until she's thrashing and mewling with the crescendo of rising pleasure and when he growls louder and comes hard, the hot feel of him inside her sends her tumbling after him.

She's gone for a split second, lost in the blackness of that petit mort and when she's comes back she's below him again and he's kissing her neck and his cock is still hard and demanding inside her as screws her back to life. She tilts her head back and grins smugly at the ceiling, oh yeah he's hers.

 **A/N hope the sex scene was ok sex is even harder to write than action :-S**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N So here's a thing that's been bugging me about some recent Klaus fics I've read, I don't know if any of you agree.  
I've seen him in quite a few fics (decent fics not rubbish) described as tall and/or broad. Hmmm Joseph Morgan is mind-bendingly attractive but he is neither tall nor broad, he's what about 5'10" and decidedly wiry (which personally I find super sexy). Hmmm maybe I shouldn't worry about it**

 **Ok on with the tale and something a bit fluffier for you**

Chapter 12

Her finger's run through his short hair and she looks down between her own breasts to where his head lies on her belly. He looks so boyish, so human, lying there it's hard to remember he's been around for a millennia, even harder to remember the beast he showed her a short while ago, yellow eyed and growling as he ploughed her.

"What are you like as a wolf?" she asks curiously and he lifts his head and frowns slightly.

"Wolfish," he replies teasingly his fingers tracing lazy patterns on the skin of her arm. "Four legs and a tail"

"Hmm" she ponders his flippant answer. "What colour are you?"

He gives a bemused look at her persistent curiosity but indulges her and tips his head pointing at his own hair. "That colour," he answers and she laughs lightly.

"Ok" she says. "That make's sense. How do you feel, you know when you're a wolf?"

"Wild, liberated, but essentially the same," he considers his own answer. "Unlike true wolves as a hybrid I am aware, I control and remember my actions in wolf form."

"So you wouldn't hurt me," she clarifies to herself. "Can I see you as a wolf sometime?"

"You want me to undergo the agony of transition to satisfy your capricious curiosity?" he asks incredulously and his fingers take to tracing the outer curves of her breasts.

"Yep" she grins at him and pops the 'p' cheekily.

He shakes his head fondly and moves to lie beside her and watch the ceiling with her. "Ok"

"Cool" she twists onto her side and props herself up on her elbow. "Can I pet you?"

He narrows his eyes. "Sweetheart I may love you enough to indulge this silly whim of yours but there are limits"

"You…" she begins stunned by his careless admission.

He seems surprised by her confusion. "Did you think that had changed, Caroline?"

"I don't know" she flounders. "I just didn't know-"

"Yes you did" he interrupts her then mercifully changes the subject while she tries to right herself in the tumbling waters of what she has truly always known. "So what now? No doubt the trouble you've put yourself to for my family will have left you somewhat behind at college. I believe Elena and Bonnie are heading back there today, will you travel with them?"

"Yes," she isn't sure. "Um I guess. You're just gonna let me go back to college?"

"You thought I'd try and stop you?" he asks with a hint of annoyance.

"No, yes, I don't know"

Her bemusement gentles him and he looks into her eyes somberly. "I do remember what you said Caroline, about having plans, a future. And I understand your desire to live at least one human life. You have ties to humans, your mother is mortal, your friends."

"Yeah," she hasn't thought about the future, nothing beyond a vague feeling of not wanting to deny her feelings for him anymore and a serious case of the lusties. "So you go back and ruling New Orleans and I go back to college, just like that, see you in fifty years?"

He shrugs, "I'm a patient man Caroline and I am immortal. I can wait and when you've lived your future and got all those things that you want, the ones that I recall do not involve me, then I'll be there."

Jibe aside as declarations of intent go it's pretty epic, he'll wait for her, through the decades until she's done with all the things she wants from life. She's going to get her cake and eat it. Will they be exclusive she wonders suddenly unsettled, she thinks of college boys catching her eye, of trivial passing romances, she thinks of Camille always close by in New Orlean, beautiful and compassionate and perhaps not so trivial.

"Rebekah's been gone a while" she comments just to say something other than what's on her mind

He holds in a smile. "She's been back an hour love," he informs her. "I assumed you'd heard her"

"Oh god" she covers her face with her arm mortified. "Do you think she heard us"

His laugh is rich and easy. "She's human love, not deaf. Besides if she didn't I imagine Damon and Elena certainly did, you're not exactly quiet sweetheart."

She doesn't find it in the slightest bit amusing and his taunting isn't helping. "Shit" she swings off the bed and assess what's left of her clothes. "Oh shit" She's too busy trying to secure the ripped straps of her dress to notice that his movements are sharp and angry as he pulls on his jeans.

"Should I create a diversion so you can escape out the back Caroline" he asks in a voice that's supposed to be joking but is full of something hurt and nasty.

She stops fussing with her dress and looks over at him, taking in the rigid lines of his bare back as he reaches for his t-shirt. "Hey" she says softly and he stops but doesn't turn to face her, she steps softly forward and lays a hand on his arm to turn him. She doesn't look into his angry face she traces the birds as they take flight over his shoulder. "I'm embarrassed ok that's all"

He sneers and moves to turn away but she grabs his arm and holds him in place. "I'm pretty much mortified that your sister and my best friend just got the full audio of us…" she trails off making a waving gesture at the bed. "I'm embarrassed, ok? I'm not ashamed"

He tilts his head and looks doubtful. "I mean it," she says. "I'm taking a chance on you because I have faith in the promise you made me. I finally get it, that we, vampires I mean, we can't be judged on the past. We just live too long and we're too, I don't know, too hungry I guess. We can only judge ourselves on what we do now, on what want to be in the future"

He takes her in his arms again. "How can you be so wise my Caroline?"

She smiles and strokes his jaw. "Youthful intuition. Maybe you're just too jaded, aren't you like a billion or something?" she echoes her words of years ago.

"So" he moves away and pulls on his t-shirt. "Diversion or united front?"

"Diversion?" she asks with joking hopefulness. "Urgh ok, united front, come on"

Rebekah and Elena are sitting awkwardly in the large living room, Hope sleeps in her car seat at the original's all turn to look at them as they enter and Rebekah stands immediately.

"Finally" Rebekah sounds impatient. "I thought you two were going to be at it all bloody day." She lays a hand on her hip as she cattily addresses her rather than Klaus. The body couldn't look less like her real one but every gesture is exactly the same. "Now If you've quite finished shagging my brother's brains out he's needed back in New Orleans"

She thinks Klaus will scold his sister again but clearly his mood is too buoyant, a thousand years old and still such a man, and he just smirks and wander's over to squat down beside Hope and look into her sleeping face.

She gives Rebekah a forced smile and tips an open palm towards the hybrid. "He's all yours"

"Come on Nik," Rebekah demands picking up Hope's bag. "There are a million things to do before the wedding"

She can't believe they're leaving so soon, she thought she'd have more time before they're separation begins and she must look as lost as she feels because Elena stands and comes to her with sympathetic eyes and practical words, "We should head off soon too"

"Ok" she nods and looks over at Klaus as he picks up Hope's car seat, he looks handsome and slender in Damon's slightly too big for him t-shirt and she wants a proper goodbye, not this rushed public parting.

He stops before her as he follows his sister towards the door, deposits Hope carefully on the floor. "Goodbye my Caroline." He murmurs and kisses her forehead tenderly.

"Bye" she breathes and smiles a small awkward smile while her heart pounds angrily against her ribs and rails against this madness, he's just going to walk out. He's doing the right thing and giving her the time she needs to be ready for him and she thinks she actually hates him for it more than she thanks him.

"Wait," Rebekah is her unlikely savior. "You're coming to the wedding right?"

"I, er.."

"You have to, it's going to be amazing" Rebekah gushes. "It's Thursday night, Nik will pay for your ticket"

She glances at Klaus and he just lifts one shoulder in shrugging agreement. "Why not Caroline?" He seems to think she needs cajoling, doesn't he realize she's in no hurry for their separation? "I'll buy you a dress"

A smile breaks out all over her face, a stay of execution on their time together and a Klaus sponsored outfit, win win. "Ok, see you there."

…

Elena's car is cool as they make there way back to Whitmore, the temperature infinitely more comfortable than the atmosphere. Bonnie sits in the back staring out of the window at the rushing scenery and Elena chatters senselessly to fill the silence. The doppelganger held in her recriminations and is making a heroic effort to be understanding, Bonnie on the other hand has not been so merciful. It's not her fault, Bonnie thinks in human terms, has never taken human life, there is no way the witch can understand that forgiveness has to be different for their kind.

Eventually Bonnie falls asleep and Elena can speak freely. "Are you sure you know what you're doing Care?" she asks. "I know he said he'd be better but without you around do you really believe him"

"I have to Elena" she sighs she wants so much to get all this off her chest. How confused and frighten she is by his promise. How grateful and angry she is at him for leaving her to the life she told him she needs without him. "I know he's done terrible things to all of us, but I have to believe he's redeemable. That we're all redeemable, even Klaus"

Elena doesn't answer she looks thoughtful and the silence makes her squirm. "Do you think I'm a terrible person for caring about him, for having these feelings for him."

Elena gives her a warm rebutting look. "Care you are not a terrible person. If you can see the good in everyone, even in him, that doesn't make you terrible. That makes you amazing." Elena reaches over and briefly squeezes her hand. "I wouldn't change that about you for anything and if Klaus Mikaleson is the price I have to pay to have an amazing person like you in my life then I'll pay it. Gladly"

She chokes up at her friend's words and looks at Elena with a slight blurring in her eyes.

"I do want so much more for you than him though" the brunette continues worry creasing her pretty face.

"I know, to be honest I thought I did too and I tried Elena, I kept shutting my feelings for him in a box and promising myself I wouldn't open it again. But he's been under my skin from the start, even when he was at his worst something drew me to him."

"Oh I get it, trust me I get it. I remember hating myself for wanting Damon. I kept trying to see the monster everyone else saw, but I never could, I always saw him differently, like…" Elena smiles a loving inward smile as she thinks about her boyfriend, and she regrets how hard she was on them when they first got together. "Like everything was possible with him."

They're silent for a while she knows Elena is trying to think of something to say; her friend isn't great at silences. "So what's the deal with this separate lives thing? You're together but, what, on pause?"

So she tells Elena about their conversation in the forest, about his understanding, his patience, and she knows her voice turns soft and bewildered and yes a little loving as she does. Eventually she opens up completely to her friend and talks about her doubts, about not how not knowing where they stand on seeing other people is driving her crazy especially with darling Camille so clearly interested in him.

She doesn't realize Bonnie has woken up until the witch's hand touches her shoulder. "Just ask him" she says slipping seamlessly into the conversation and it reminds her of simpler times when they were just three girls talking about boys, "it sounds like you two can talk about stuff, so ask him?"

What Bonnie has heard in her conversation with Elena to soften her she doesn't know, she doesn't really care, she's just grateful that she doesn't have to fight her friends on this. She grasps Bonnie's hand and turns in her seat to smile gratefully and tearfully at her. "Thanks guys" she says and the girls nod and smile back.

The moment is too heavy and Elena frees them. "So you're going to let him pick your dress? Is that wise?"

She grins. "Yes" she says emphatically. "He has insanely good taste and money to burn. I'm hoping for Gucci, maybe Prada"

They all laugh and suddenly it seems possible and ridiculously perfect. She'll live her college life with her friends, maybe get that career in broadcasting she wanted, make her mother proud. She'll see Bonnie and Matt raise families and her mother grow old. Then forty, fifty, maybe a hundred years from now, she'll knock on his door and he'll be waiting, a better man than he is today and ready to be hers.

…

 **A/N I realize that feels final, it's not it's very much not, stay tuned my lovelies**

 **PS Gucci and Prada are the only vaguely posh brands I can think of, if they are not super cool and wildly expensive then insert a brand of your own choosing in that sentence**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N i am a bad bad fanfic author who disappears for ages and doesn't update. Honestly this chapter took a bit of writing and then I couldn't shake the idea i had for another story until it was written. (It's here if you fancy a shortish Klaroline fic** s/11392424/1/The-brightest-parts)

 **Anyway i'm back and I have finally written this chapter. I'm not sure how it's come out so let me know what you think (hint feedback hint)**

 **Chapter 13**

The dress is perfect, it could have been made for her, she actually suspects it was, and falls in clinging Grecian style over her body, silken and shimmering. She knows she looks beautiful; his eyes every time they fall on her would tell her that even if the mirror had not.

They've had little time to talk, she'd been delayed and he's been busy hosting. When she'd arrived Rebekah had pulled her away before she could find him. "You're late" the original had huffed. "It's put Nik in a foul mood. Come on your dress is here."

Here it had turned out had been Klaus' bedroom and she'd run her fingers over his things, lingering on the easel as she'd studied the half finished lines of a darkened city scape. He's so talented she'd thought, and felt a little buzz of that's-my-boyfriend pride that made her shake her head.

In his shower she had thought of him wet and naked and her hands had linger on her own body, any other day she'd have used his shower gel to get the full experience but she hadn't wanted to go to the party smelling like a man.

Finally with girlish excitement she'd allowed herself to unzip the dress bag hanging on the outside of his wardrobe and mentally congratulated herself on choosing a man with such flawless taste. As she'd sat to apply her make up she'd realised how comfortably she'd been thinking about him as her boyfriend but she'd had no time to self-analyse because he'd been in the doorway, still dressed in his jeans and t-shirt and radiating tension ominously. A foul mood, Rebekah had said and clearly she was right.

She'd met his eyes in the mirror. "You're not ready," she'd observed scoldingly and his face had tightened in suppressed anger. "Shower" she'd commanded determined not to be cowed by his brooding power and he'd clenched his jaw and remained obstinately in the doorway. "Seriously. Shower now! I look amazing in this dress and I need my boyfriend to look amazing too."

And just like that his chameleon mood had shifted and he'd been flashing her his dimples as he'd sauntered lazily over to stand behind her and lay his hands on her shoulders. "Hello love" he leant down to kiss her but she'd avoided his lips. "No you'll wreck my make up, go shower"

He'd actually stuck his lower lip out at that and she'd giggled as she'd selected her eye-liner. "Go"

He hadn't moved and his hands had slid temptingly over her bare arms while he'd stooped to drop kisses on her shoulder.

She'd hummed appreciatively under his ministration until his hand had made to slide into her perfect hair. "Ah ha" she'd caught up his hands and turned awkwardly to place a brief chaste kiss on his lips. "Shower"

He'd rolled his eyes and conceded, perhaps there were benefits to him having spent a millennia with a brat like Rebekah, he certainly knows when to bow to a woman's wish. "Fine"

She'd been applying a glossy neutral lipstick when he'd emerged just a few minutes later with his hair wet against his forehead and a towel wrapped around his waist. He'd noticed her eyes in the mirror, secretly watching him dress as he'd begun to button his shirt and had lifted both eyebrows smugly. She'd lifted one in determinedly unembarrassed reply and pretended to be busy spraying perfume on her wrists.

"Shall we?" he'd held out his hand and as she stood he'd taken her in appreciatively. "My Caroline", his hands had been on her again, lightly finding her waist through the fine layer of silk. "You're quite right love, you do look amazing"

She'd beamed at the compliment and repaid it sincerely. "Well you're keeping up your end too." She'd fingered his lapel. "The tux alone is definitely worth the trip"

"The ceremony was quite lovely was it not Miss Forbes?" Elijah's voice draws her back to the present and she looks at him as he glides her expertly around the dance floor. He is a truly incredible dancer, and the nervousness she'd felt when he'd offered her his hand had faded almost as soon as those hands had lain, coolly confident, on her body.

"Yes" she answers honestly. It had been lovely and the reception is beyond elegant, she thinks some very talented people have been compelled to make this happen. "Haley looked really beautiful," complimenting the hybrid sticks a little in her throat but she did look very nice and so long as she's married and keeping her skanky paws to herself she thinks she can afford to be a little magnanimous.

Something dark flashes across Elijah's face and she realises she's struck a nerve. The noble Elijah in love with the mother of his brother's child, it all seems a little day time tv and the thought makes her suppress a smile. Over the originals shoulder the other hybrid catches her eye and she smiles, bright and brief, before the dance takes him from her sight.

"Miss Forbes" Elijah speaks again in a serious tone and she wonders briefly if he has other tones before dismissing the thought in favour of paying attention to his words. "May I ask you a personal question?"

The urge to say "hell no" flares at the front of her mind but she bites it back and nods. "Of course"

"What exactly are your intentions towards my brother?"

She loses the rhythm of the dance for an instant but Elijah rights her effortlessly and continues without even a hint of humour in his voice. "I realise that may seem an old fashion question, but it is a most pertinent one. This is a critical time in my brother's life, a crossroads if you will. His love for Hope could be the making or breaking of him and I intend to ensure it is the former."

She nods mutely wondering where Elijah is going with this.

"He has been lucky enough to find himself in a position here which is unique for him, he has a reason to change and he has support to do so. He has family and even friends at his side who will do all in their power to guide him down the right path."

"I want that. I want that for him," she replies offended, does Elijah see her as an obstacle on his road to redemption? "You think I'd stand in the way, seriously?" she keeps her voice low but it burns with indignation.

"You misunderstand me Miss Forbes." Elijah replies smoothly, unaffected by her anger as he sweeps her in an elegant circle. "Far from seeing you as an obstacle I believe your presence in my brother's life to be absolutely critical. I am aware of the promise he made to you"

She looks sharply at Elijah, can't imagine how he knows. She can't really picture he and Klaus having that kind of heart to heart. Perhaps it came through Rebekah, or more likely it spilled out in an argument. Whichever, she feels the full weight of Elijah's expectation bear down on her and finds she has nothing to offer in response.

Elijah continues regardless. "Niklaus over the centuries has not often been romantically entangled, he does not have the capacity for trust required for such relationships."

She nods. "Tell me about it"

"He trusts you Miss Forbes." Elijah states matter-of-factly and she startles at the undeniable truth of it. He does trust her, even after everything. "And I believe he would listen, as far as my brother is ever capable of listening, to your good council.

"Elijah" Klaus' voice interrupts them and she turns to him in relief. "Give a chap his girlfriend back won't you brother, you've been monopolising my Caroline too long"

Elijah gives them an appraising look and bows slightly to her before backing away without a word.

A moment later she's in Klaus' arms and they're picking up the dance, he hasn't Elijah's skill but his hand lies lower on her back, finding the curve of her bottom, and she's flush against him in a way that makes her skin buzz.

"I hope my brother wasn't threatening you again sweetheart" he smirks and she can't say if its playful or malicious. "I do have a dagger handy if he should trouble you"

She's relieved to be free of the weight of Elijah's gaze and of the responsibility his words seemed to thrust upon her. But as he swirls her around the dance floor she can't quite lose herself in the dance, or even the delicious feeling of him against her. Her mind swirls in tighter circles than their bodies and there is something about him tonight that she can't quite put her finger on, but it unsettles her.

She's watched him host this magnificent party, watched him moving among his guests, looking every inch the benevolent host and yet something about him tonight, something lurking just beneath his polished surface, has reminded her of the time when he frightened her.

They dance until her unease is lost in the feeling of his arms around her and in the whispered commentary he gives her on his more colourful guests, she's flushed and laughing when he next leaves her, with a lingering kiss and an apology, to play politics.

Cami catches her eyes, talking to a dark and striking teenager, and she makes her way over to the pair. "Hi Cami" she greets the blond warmly, for all her jealousy she can't help but like the bartender.

"Hi Caroline" Cami seems equally pleased to see her and smiles broadly before indicating the young woman at her side. "Caroline, this is Davina."

"Hi Davina," she turns to the brunette with a sunny smile and is met with an icy glare.

"I need to find Josh" Davina says without acknowledging her and turns to leave.

The sheer bad manners of it shock her. "Rude" she exclaims and the teenager turns back to face her. "What the hell did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing yet" the dark haired girl replies nastily. "I just prefer not to hang out with monsters. And just so you know, I've brought your boyfriend to his knees before, I can easily take you down."

She actually doesn't doubt it. There is power and magic all around the girl but she's not one to back down. "Seriously? You don't know anything about me. Where the hell do you get off?"

"I know you're a vampire and I know you're screwing Klaus" Davina sneers and disgust drips from her judgmental words. For a second she's thrown violently back to when she'd hated herself for wanting him, when Tyler had used those same words to shame her with her actions and she looks away.

The young witch looks triumphant despite a disappointed murmur of "Davina" from Cami.

Then the witch is gone and there's no time to gather herself and be the new Caroline, the one who isn't ashamed of being brave enough and strong enough to try and save a monster.

Klaus is making a toast and she watches him warmly enough despite the fact that there is something glinting devilishly in his eyes. "Jackson, I invite you and your bride to live here, uniting your proud and noble people in _peace._ Welcome to the family, mate."

She watches his eyes flash to the balcony and his grin is truly wicked, looking back she sees Elijah looking as close to devastated as the elder Original could possibly look and she closes her eyes in disbelief for a second before fixing them angrily on Klaus. God how could she forget what an utter bastard he can be.

So it looks like operation be a better man has hit a bump in the road already and not even a week in. She growls to herself and stalks over to where he's standing watching the jubilant wolves get steadily drunker and smirking in a self satisfied way that makes her want to slap his face.

"Caroline, sweetheart" he greets with genuine bonhomie and the urge to slap him makes her palms tingle.

"Don't you sweetheart me Klaus" she hisses and grabs his arm careful not to let her body language betray her fury to his guests, any hint of public discord would anger him and she needs him capable of listening in a way she knows his rage would prevent.

When they're alone he looks at her questioningly. "Problems love?"

"Yes, problems Klaus" she runs her hands through her hair, he surely cannot be unaware of what he's done. "How could you do that to your brother? It's pretty obvious how he feels about Haley. How is he supposed to live with her right here, all married off to Jackson?"

He smiles charmingly at her but all she sees is an infuriating smugness. "Knowing Elijah he won't, he'll do the noble thing and move out. But he won't go far from Hope so he only has one option." He pauses and raises a finger looking infuriatingly pleased with himself. "He will go to Marcel across the river and Marcel will accept him, he knows without an Original on his side he would stand no chance against me. He will seek to make an alliance with my brother, who is ultimately loyal to my daughter, thus eliminating any threat from New Orleans' vampires. With Jackson and Haley close by I will be able to exert control over the packs leaving only the witches."

He doesn't look even remotely abashed and she realises he doesn't expect her disapproval. "The charming Davina is a harvest girl, it shouldn't be too difficult to manoeuvre her into a position of control among the witches." he continues, "And while she certainly despises me she is a friend to Camille and moreover is in love with my brother Kol who, for all our bickering, has always craved my approval, so-"

"Klaus" she reins in harshness she feels like unleashing on him. Tries to remember that this has been his way for centuries and that it's going to take time and patience to turn him around. "Klaus this is not ok, don't you see you can't treat people like this?"

He frowns and she sees him bristle defensively. "How else would you have me treat them Caroline? All these factions could threaten Hope, if I control the city I control the threat"

"Oh my God, factions? seriously?" patience isn't really her strong suit and she can never hold in her opinions. "They're your family not dancing puppets in the Klaus Mikaelson marionette show"

His face tenses with rising anger and he steps in close hissing at her through his teeth. "To protect my daughter I will do whatever I must. What other way do I have to ensure her safety?"

He judgement has always been fierce but underneath her compassion has always held sway and she pities him with such burning intensity she struggles to keep her focus on setting him straight. How can he trust so little in those that love him so much?

"You could talk to them" she suggests softly. "Talk to Elijah, he wants to save you and he'd do anything for Hope. You don't have to hurt him, you could just tell him what you need and he'll do it."

He looks away and she can tell by the tension in his jaw that he's grinding his teeth. "If Elijah were playing him Marcel would know, I need-"

"Isn't he like your adopted son or something?" She's not clear on his relationship with Marcel but from what Cami has told her it sounds like centuries ago Klaus actually raised this guy, which is so beyond weird she can't really process it. "If my dad and I could make up after he tortured me I'm sure you and Marcel can bury the hatchet"

"A nice sentiment Caroline" he sneers defensively. "But not all father's can be so easily forgiven"

"Klaus" she reaches for him and he leans away form her, refusing to meet her eyes. His pain is always so raw, so close to the surface and it all stems from one ancient abusive source. "Klaus, look at me" he does and his eyes are wet despite the anger in his features. "You're not Mikael"

He closes his eyes and moves to speak but they're interrupted by a familiar unfamiliar voice. "She's right Nik, you're not our father" Rebekah steps into the room and Klaus' troubled eyes land searchingly on his sister. "And you were everything to Marcel"

He looks between the two women he loves most in the world she can see him weakening and plays her final card. "A better man" she whispers and touches his cheek tenderly. "Remember?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Happy now Caroline?" Klaus sounds annoyed but she can see a sort of relief in him that makes her feel light and easy and hopeful.

"Extremely!" she smiles smugly and her eyes dance with a warmth he won't be able to resist for long.

"Elijah is mollified, Marcel has been summoned and my genius scheme of recruiting Aiden to play spy and undermine Jackson has been shelved." The hybrid makes and exasperated gesture. "Did you come to New Orleans expressly to ruin my plans?"

She lifts and eyebrow at his bad temper, she wont let his sulk take the shine of this for her because today she knows for certain he's capable of change. He'll bitch and whine and make out that he's done this for her but she knows better. She sees how underneath he's glad, that he understands how close he came to destroying everything he's trying to build around his daughter, peace, safety, family.

"No, I came for a party and a free dress, upsetting your evil apple cart is a happy side effect." She looks down from the balcony onto the revelers bellow and is glad she won't be on cleanup duty. The wolves sure know how to party.

Klaus rolls his eyes and huffs out air through his nose in annoyance. Ok enough of this. She's only here for the night and then they're doing the whole separate lives thing, she's not wasting anymore time watching him pout. Although she has to admit if he sticks that luscious lip of his out again she'll be sorely tempted to bite it.

"So it seems," he grumbles. "Perhaps you will be content once I am totally ruined and powerless-"

"Klaus shut up" She breaks in before he can get into another of his mini rants and he fixes her with an annoyed glare. "Jees I go back to college tomorrow I am not spending our last night together listening to your griping. So either ask me to dance or kiss me already"

His lips tighten to hold back a smile and he rolls his eyes as he reaches for her. "Will you dance with me then Caroline?"

"I would love to."

She dances with Klaus and with Marcel when he arrives shortly after, and boy how hot is that guy? Klaus' ward is certainly a charmer and she finds herself thoroughly enjoying herself until the tempo drops and they part easily. She's not going to be slow dancing with him; she's practically his stepmom she thinks with amusement.

Her eyes hunt for Klaus as the guests pair up and her good mood stutters at the sight of him swaying with Camille on the far side of the room. One of his hands holds the blonde's between their respectably distant bodies and the other lies on her waist, neither too high nor too low to be inappropriate. They're talking, the pretty bartender is looking up into his eyes with a soft serious expression and his lips move with words she can't hear over the music.

It's ridiculous to be jealous she tells herself, they're just dancing. Cami is his friend and God knows he needs friends like her if he's going to make a go of this better man thing. But seeing them together stirs up all those questions she still hasn't been brave enough to broach about where they stand with seeing other people while they're apart.

She's vaguely aware that she's standing stock still on the dance floor like an idiot while couples sway intimately around her, but she can't seem to drag her eyes off the hybrid and his human. Klaus steps back after a few more moments and lifts the blonde's hand to kiss her knuckles before he turns to scan the dance floor.

There's just enough time for her to fix her expression from uncertain and jealous to smiling and inviting before his eyes find her and he weaves his way towards her without losing the connection of their gaze.

Without a word he takes her in his arms and pulls her body flush against his with both arms around her waist. Her arms go around his neck and he drops his head into the crook of her neck, humming contentedly as he tightens his arms around her as they just barely move together.

She feels like she's lying in the warm shallows of the ocean, his body moves her like the rhythmic swell of the tide and she sighs. The draw of his body, strong and tender against her own supple form, is impossible to resist despite the doubt and jealousy still hovering blackly at the edge of her mind. When his lips form a kiss against the skin of her throat she tightens her grip on him and runs one hand into his hair. How she wants him. She has wanted him so much, so secretly for so long that it is strange and disorientating to have him openly in her arms.

It's exciting, empowering and terrifying all at once to publically claim him. To let the supernatural VIPs of New Orleans see that their king is hers, to let sneering Davina and her judgment know she doesn't give a flying fuck what she thinks and, this one at least she isn't too proud of, to show beautiful Camille that he is taken.

"Great party," she compliments as she pulls away slightly to look at him.

He smiles in response and is about to speak when she silences him with a finger on his lips and a heated look. "Let's leave it," she says letting her meaning drip provocatively from the hushed tone of her voice.

He smirks and nods, takes her hand and leads her quietly away towards the stairs.

"Nik" Rebekah cuts them off before they can get there and they both sigh loudly enough to make the youngest original raise an eyebrow. "Elijah wants you, in the drawing room. He wants to talk to you about getting Kol and Davina to play nicely"

Klaus nods to his sister. "Very well" he says but doesn't move. Rebekah shakes her head and goes with an annoyed huff.

"Urgh" she grumbles at the interruption, she's so completely ready for the Mikaelson family drama of the evening to be over. "Your brother-"

Her balance falters as he turns and runs at human speed down the corridor her hand firmly grasped in his as they move away from the drawing room and towards the second staircase at the back of the building. She laughs as she stumbles along behind him.

"Niklaus." Elijah's firm patriarchal voice sounds behind them but her hybrid just flashes her a mischievous grin and vamps them up the stairs and all the way to his bedroom door.

"Elijah wants-" she begins half-heartedly

"Elijah wants many things Caroline, none of which he will be getting tonight"

"But-" his lips hit hers, clumsily silencing her with a faint taste of blood and scotch and their enticing warmth.

She presses him up against the door as she fumbles behind him for the handle and kisses him with bold careless movement of her tongue and lips. They half fall when she finally manages to get the door open and it swings suddenly beneath their weight and she laughs giddily as they trip and flounder in a tangle of uncoordinated limbs towards the bed.

He's laughing too and they're so like a girl and a boy giddily falling into bed together that she could forget that he's the oldest most powerful creature on the planet if it wasn't for the ever present thrumming in her veins when they're together, the call of his power all around and all inside her. 'We're the same' he'd told her all that time ago when he'd read so accurately that nothing could have made her take that stupid cure everyone else had been so desperate for.

She remembers that day vividly; the second time a hybrid bite had almost killed her, the second time he'd saved her from the worst of himself. Looking back now it's so clear that she'd already been hurtling down this path, the one inevitably leading to them together. She'd been so in love with Tyler back then and so desperate to save him but in spite of that the original had already been crowding out everything else in her mind.

She'd come to Elena's house to take her boyfriend home, to untangle him from his twisted revenge but the truth is once she'd got there she'd barely seen Tyler, all she'd seen was Klaus. She remembers moving towards him, into range as it turned out, magnetised through her rage to him. She remembers his fangs in her throat, his gloating refusal to help her and she remembers his pain, always his pain, visible only to her, deep and tragic beneath the surface of his wickedness.

That day with all it's violence should have sent her running, her sanity had told her a thousand times to flee, but somehow it only drew her deeper.

At the time she hadn't known why she'd been so bold with him - 'I know that you're in love with me' – maybe it was just because she was dying and she hadn't wanted to go without knowing if she was right or if his 'charm' just had her imagining the love, burning just for her, in his eyes.

'I guess I'll never know' she'd muttered with her dying breath, but then she hadn't died and she'd been in his arms again drinking the ancient healing blood form his wrist and coming back to life knowing, knowing certainly and impossibly, that he was capable of love. Capable, she'd told him, of being saved.

His love will save him now if anything can. His love for Hope, huge and terrifying, for his fragile human sister and his loyal brother, his troubled love for Marcel and at the centre, to steady and guide him, his love for her.

She's being selfish, she knew that even before Elijah danced with her and told her that Klaus' salvation relies on her. Her desire, her need, to pursue her human hopes and dreams could jeopardize this chance they have to save him and if he remains as he is or if he cannot survive his love for his daughter then how many countless innocents will suffer for it over the centuries to come?

But she can't let it go, she needs to see it through, with her friends and her mom all the way to the end and just hope that the people she leaves him with can hold him together over the decades until she comes back to him.

His mouth trails hungrily down her neck and she snaps back to the present and the building desire charging her body everywhere he touches her. She never knew it could be this way, how could she she's barely more than a child? But God how could sex ever be so chaotically perfect? A messy and unchoreographed adventure into each other that she knows she'll never tire of no matter how many centuries pass.

She pushes his tux off his shoulders and gropes at his lean body through the thin cotton of his shirt, as she grinds randomly against him, wanting to be closer, always closer, to him.

Their names fall haphazardly from each other's lips between kisses and finally they tumble onto the bed, her body stretched out over his, his hands rough and hungry on her backside as he pulls her more tightly to him.

"No" she squeals when he grips the neckline of the dress ready to tear it from her body. Sure she's crazy with wanting him right now but she still has enough sanity left not to let him ruin this beautiful dress. "Wait"

She scrambles off him and he props himself up on his elbows and watches with amused lust darkened eyes as she gropes behind her back for the clasps. She pauses and gives him a pointed look before she'll let the silk fall from her body. "And you" she says bossily and he smirks and starts unbuttoning his shirt, his eyes not leaving her as hers follow the trail of smooth pale skin each movement uncovers.

Once his chest is bare she releases her dress and feels a powerful surge of arousal hit her at the lustful turn of his gaze at the sight of her in just the tiny thong that was all the underwear the clinging fabric of the dress had allowed her.

He's appreciating her again, just like back at the boarding house when she'd been bashful under his lingering gaze. This time she feels no desire to hide her body from him. Instead she slowly slips her fingers under the strings at her hips and eases the fabric sensuously down her thighs.

He tips his head and watches her, his lips parting slightly as his eyes take her in, naked and unashamed, before him. "Caroline" his voice is breathy and strained and she marvels, she thinks she may always marvel, at the power she has over him.

The power, she thinks, to make him unsteady with desire, the power to take his breath from his body. The power to gentle him when he is raging, to comfort him when he is hurt and even those great powers are trivial she thinks compared with the greatest power she wields over the Original Hybrid himself. That after centuries lost she has the power to make him want to be, moreover to make him believe he can be, a better man.

Power like this is more terrifying than all the life or death drama she's lived through and she can't quite cover the way that unsettles her. "You ok love?"

He sits her in his lap and strokes her hair. "Sweetheart, talk to me. What is it?"

There are million thoughts swimming, or drowning, in her mind right now but the two screaming loudest are how is he going to ever turn himself around without her and how the hell is she supposed to get on with her life constantly wondering what he's screwing up and, a nasty voice adds, who he's just plain screwing.

"What's on your mind love?" Klaus' gentle fingers turn her head so she's looking down into his questioning eyes. He gives a half smile and tries to lighten the mood. "Seeing you so easily distracted could have a chap worried he's losing his touch"

There's her opening, if she doesn't do it now she's just going to drift back to Whitmore with all these questions unasked and God knows its easier to focus on the triviality of sexual fidelity than allow in the thought that she's damning him, herself and possibly the world by leaving tomorrow. "Hmm" she doesn't mean to sound confrontational but the subject makes her edgy as if she's already suffering his hypothetical infidelity. "I'm sure your touch is just fine, it's not like you're short of practice."

He tries for a playful smirk but its uneasy, he's clearly uneasy by her switching mood. "Well I am very old, as you do so enjoy reminding me" he traces a finger down her throat seductively. "It would be a shame if my long history had taught me nothing"

"And your future, what will that teach you?" she says nastily, she has no right and she really doesn't want to ruin tonight but she can feel the crazy settling on her and all she can think of is Cami looking up into his face. The bartender is so clearly falling for him and he isn't supposed to care about anything but he obviously cares for Cami. And no matter how hard she tries to see that as a good sign for his redemption all she sees is a rival.

"A great deal I have no doubt" he gives her one of his sweet crooked smiles and touches her skin with a cajoling charm that makes her feel perversely vindicated in her crazy. "I hope to have the finest teacher after all"

She scoffs. "Or teachers"

"Caroline" he says with rising impatience his pretty eyes narrowed, jaw set. "Perhaps a little less attitude and a little more clarity would make this conversation more productive. If you have something to say then please do have at it"

"I" she falls silent; angry at herself and, perversely, at him. "Forget it"

"Hardly likely" he dumps her unceremoniously off his lap and stands, the muscles of his lean chest moving distractingly beneath his pale skin. Her eyes devour the angry flex and release and she curses herself for ruining everything.

"I just…" she trails off and looks down at her own naked body. Things were perfect a moment ago and now she's naked and unsure and pissed off.

The wind drops out of her sails with what she imagines as an audible rush and her shoulders slump a little. Instantly she sees him relent, his body and face softening, and seeing his anger, the anger which has always defined him, fall so easily away makes her feel easy in her foolishness. He'll understand she thinks and she goes to him, snuggling into his willing arms.

"I'm sorry," she mumbles. "It's just that I'm going off to start my life tomorrow, which thank you for letting me do by the way because I totally need it. But it's freaking me out"

"How so love?"

"Well for one thing, I left you alone for three days and you were already screwing things up with Elijah and plotting against Haley and being, well, you." She straightens up as the words start to flow and pulls away from him, it feels good to let all these uncertainties out she's never been good at bottling stuff up. "And for another, I'll be in college and cute guys are going to hit on me and…"

If she didn't know him so well she wouldn't see the tension in his face or the guards go up behind his eyes. He looks so relaxed as he tilts his head as if he were merely curious. "Most likely" he says non-committally, he's not going to help her out it seems, she's just going to have to plough on.

"What am I supposed to say to them?"

He shrugs nonchalantly and his eyes slide carelessly away from hers. "I would have imagined college romance was somewhere on that list of things that you want." He doesn't look at her and she wishes he would but instead he retrieves his jacket from the floor where she'd thrown it after so passionately stripping it from his body and lays it on a chair.

"It is" she looks down again, wishing she had some clothes on, she feels exposed enough right now without being naked as a newborn. She picks up his shirt and slips it on wrapping herself in light cotton and the smell of his expensive cologne. "It was, I don't know. I know what I really don't want though, because thinking about it makes me all crazy"

He tips his head and waits for her to finish, and in she dives with a righteous sort of desperation that she hopes doesn't come across as utterly pathetic.

"I don't want to spend the next few decades wondering if you're hooking up with skanky witches or drunk werewolves or, I don't know." She's actually going to say this like the insecure loony she still apparently is. She'll just tack it on to the list like it's not the whole point of her rant. "Falling head over heels for beautiful bartenders."

Klaus' laugh startles her, it's one of those brief sudden laughs that erupts in the face of the absurd and it's the last reaction she expected. "Oh Caroline," he says with a slight disbelieving shake of his head. "I loved just once as a human and in the thousand years since I turned I have found love only once again."

Her heart takes off at his words, thundering wildly in her chest, racing headlong, terrified and exhilarated, towards the declaration that must surely be about to fall from his lips. One side of the hybrid's mouth quirks up into a small sincere smile as he speaks and his eyes lock onto hers. "Camillie is indeed a very special woman, but she's not once in a millennium special" He steps towards her and she mirrors him their gaze never faltering as he lowers his head so they're lips are only inches apart and his breath as he speaks again caresses her face a s warmly as his words caress her heart. "That's just you"

She draws in a shuddering breath, oh god she thinks as his words sink in. Her, Caroline Forbes, a once in a millennium girl, it's off the scale of too much and how the hell is she supposed to react to that? Then her eyes flicker to his eloquent sinful lips and there is only one sane response to being loved this much by a man this beautiful.

Her lips as they find his are artless and demanding, ineloquent messages of desire and awed confusion. He kisses her back for just a few moments but when his hands come to her shoulders its to push her away to arms length.

"I'm a patient man Caroline and of my many weaknesses jealously is perhaps the least, you must take everything you can from the life you leave me for and when you come back to me it will be with nothing left unfinished and no regrets."

She nods but she's troubled all over her face and he sees it of course and lifts an eyebrow. "But I see in this we are not alike" he thumbs her cheek gently and gives a resigned shake of his head. "Fine my green eyed beauty. If I must wait for you in abstinence so be it. But you will suffer for it when you return, I shall not let you leave my bed for decades." He's so confident in her and that she's coming back. That he can send her off with a free pass for whatever flings she desires and she will eventually outgrow them and come back to him.

She should be able to offer him the same but in her insecurity she's too worried that a fling will become a relationship and a relationship will become something serious and something serious will eventually become love. Isn't he scared of that? Obviously not, or perhaps he understands that you cannot control another's heart you simply have to trust it.

She wants a new deal she almost says. One where they visit each other when they get too horny to ignore other people, and maybe he calls if he's feeling particularly murderous and she sets him straight. But she knows that couldn't work, she's either in or she's out with him, it's all or nothing at all so if she wants her normal college life she's going to have to trust him right back.

"No. I mean that's not fair, vampire urges and all." she takes his face in her hands, "Just promise me you'll be waiting for me"

His hands cover hers and slowly lower them to her sides, then he slips his shirt from her shoulders and runs his palms down her bare arms, his eyes fixed on hers with sincere intent. "I promise."

It's enough she thinks. She'll have to find away to make peace with the rest of it as she goes along, right now its enough that he loves her enough to let her go and that he trusts her enough to come back to him.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N a short slightly fluffy one for you my dears. I've written a Klaroline oneshot called Easy Love that some of you may like set when klaus was in tyler's body. Check it out and let me know if it warrants the start of a multi chapter fic now that this one is drawing to a close. Not many chapters left now!**

 **Right that's enough plugging, on with the tale**

 **Chapter 15**

She wakes alone with the sun high in the sky and stretches. Vampires don't feel sore the morning after and she's slightly sorry that her body doesn't ache with that satisfying feeling of having been well used.

And boy did Klaus use her well last night. If she'd been human she'd, well she'd be quite dead actually. The sheer force with which he'd taken her over and over again would have shattered any human body. The ferocity with which his fangs had torn at her throat as he'd driven into her would have bled her out in seconds.

But she's not and it didn't and she'd met his savagery with her own, had used her nails to open up deep gashes on the perfect skin of his chest so she could suck the cure from his blood while her greedy body had sucked the cum from his cock, spasming and flexing around him as she'd come.

If he'd been trying to ruin her for college boys he's done a damn good job. Nothing is ever going to compare to him she realises that. Not just because he did such wonderfully kinky and satisfying thing to her but because when she'd thought there was nothing more he could show her he'd held himself above her and pushed into her body with unimaginable gentleness and his lips had placed loving kisses up and down her healed throat as he'd whispered adoring praise of everything she is against her skin.

He hadn't said the words "I love you" but she's still never heard them so clearly from any man.

Suddenly she's aware of a presence in the room and her eyes go to the door. "Oh" she sits up hurriedly and shakes her head a little at the shape in the doorway. "Wow seriously?" she lets out a nervous delighted laugh and holds out a hand to beckon him to her.

His movements as he pads across the room are the most languidly graceful this she's ever seen. His shoulders roll beneath the sand coloured fur and his tail swings lazily from side to side with the sway of his quarters.

She can't help compare him to Tyler's glossy black wolf. He's smaller and leaner, just like the men she supposes, and his eyes are more strikingly blue than the ocean hue of his human form. He gives a short unthreatening growl exposing long white teeth and for a moment she imagines he's chiding her for thinking of another, then he leaps effortlessly up onto the bed next to her and she gives another startled laugh. He settles beside her and she reaches tentatively for him.

He'd said no petting when she'd asked him back in the boarding house if he'd change for her, and god was that only a week ago? He remembered and he indulges her, as she thinks he probably always will indulge her in anything she wants.

No petting. But she can't help it, her hand finds the thick fur at his throat and her fingers bury into it. It's silky in places, coarse in others, and she can't keep her curious hands from stroking the length of him from ears to tail as he lies beside her and watches her, head tilted in a way that is all wolf but also so very Klaus.

He whimpers slightly as her hand scratches the deep fur behind his ear. It's absolutely the single most surreal experience of her life. This is her boyfriend she's fighting the urge to call a "good boy" in a sugary tone. She's always loved dogs, years ago mystic falls had it's own German Shepherd police dog named Holly and as a girl she'd loved to snuggle down with her on the living room floor on those wonderful occasions the gentle quiet dog had stayed in their house. Lying here with him, the smell of his fur, the restful sound of his breathing transports her back to a simpler times and she sighs happily.

His eyes close and she strokes more firmly around his neck and ears and smiles. In this moment she is absolutely and utterly happy. She doesn't need to think about how much she's going to miss him or how badly he's sure to screw up in her absence, or what the hell she's still clinging to this idea of a normal life for. She's just happy.

"Wow" she says again as her fingers unconsciously go to scratch his belly. He growls and leaps suddenly from the bed, disappearing into the bathroom only to emerge moments later naked and human.

She sits up. "You changed back." She says with a disappointed pout, she wasn't quite done petting her hybrid.

"Well if I'd allowed you to continued running your glorious hands all over me in that way things would have quickly become a little too kinky even for you my Caroline" he smirks at her shocked expression and she blushes. Still a bit of that good small town girl lingers in her in spite of all she's seen and done.

In spite of the wild vampiric lust he stirs in her and all the filthy things she begged him for last night, she's still a little shy in the cold light of day and she can see from his warm mischievous eyes that he finds it adorable.

"Well excuse me for having some standards" she huffs as he saunters over and retakes his place at her side.

Her hand returns to his neck, caressing now and she frowns. It's almost time to go and she feels like she's boarded a train that's going the wrong way but there are no stops so she'll just have to ride it now to the end of the line.

"You still want to drive me?" she asks. "I could catch a plane if you're busy here"

He gives her a chiding look

"Right" she says with forced brightness. "Road trip it is then."

By one a.m. they're about four hours out of Whitmore and the conversation, which has covered everything from his troubles in the quarter to anecdotes of her childhood that made him laugh out loud, from the books they each love to baby Hope's upcoming first birthday, has dried up and they're sitting in silence thinking about the things they haven't been able to discuss. Like her plans for the next fifty years or his strategy for making it through those fifty years without doing too many unforgivable things.

She feels like she has a million things she needs to say to him but she can't bring a single one to the front of her mind right now. So she just watches the scenery fly by with a growing weight of sadness. If they keep driving they'll arrive at dawn; it's fine, vampires sleep out of habit really they don't need it. She can party one night and drive through the next and still have all the pep she needs for class but she's looking for an excuse to hold on to him a little longer.

"I'm tired" she lies smoothly when she sees the neon lights of a roadside motel. "Let's stop"

He nods wordlessly and pulls in. He compels them a room from the exhausted looking desk clerk while she waits at his side, her arm loosely linked with his in that old-fashioned way he doesn't seem to have realised no one does anymore.

She doesn't speak and he allows her to silently slip his jacket from his shoulders and lead him to the bed. They kiss with a grave determined gentleness that is at once completely at odds with both their natures and utterly fitting for this solemn farewell.

They make love slowly, like humans, with the lights off and the covers drawn over them. They make no declarations or promises. They voice no regrets or sadness. They just map each other's bodies with their hands, and commit each curve and plane to memory.

Sleep comes quickly in each other's arms and when they wake in the cheery morning sunshine the oppressive atmosphere of mourning is lifted and he slaps her bottom playfully as she rises to take a shower. She retaliates by dragging him in with her and laughing wildly at his decidedly un-manly yelp when she suddenly flicks the temperature to cold.

He chases her to the bed and they make love breathlessly, like humans, kissing and laughing and rolling over in a tangle of damp sheets and uncoordinated limbs. Between kisses they tease each other with playful put downs and joking criticisms and when he comes inside her with a soft invocation of her name she mumbles that she loves him into the skin of his neck and believes it with every fiber of her being.

His arms tighten around her with all the hybrid strength he didn't use to fuck her moments before and he says her name again so worshipfully she doesn't need any other words to believe that he loves her too.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N almost finished, almost almost there**

 **And, and and and I've topped 100 reviews. Thanks guys you make the bear growl happily with your tasty review shaped treats**

 **xxxxxxxxx**

 **Chapter 16**

"Hey you're back" Elena rushes to hug her tightly. "How was the wedding?"

"Amazing" she smiles at her friend's bubbling enthusiasm. She mustn't regret choosing this, even if her heart has been cracking and breaking since the moment he got back in his car and drove away. "Like something from Hello magazine. Plus a little Mikaelson family drama to keep it interesting."

Elena picks up on the sadness running beneath her surface. "Has Klaus gone?"

"Yeah" she swallows and tries to tell herself that all is as it should be. He is gone and her life begins. They're immortal, it's not like they're going to run out of time. He'll wait: he's patient.

"He has to go via Mystic Falls to get some stuff from the Mansion. To be honest I think he's just feeling nostalgic I wouldn't be surprised if he makes Damon and Stefan go day drinking with him at the Grill."

Elena rolls her eyes and they share a girlish moment. "Oh God, like Damon needs any encouragement to get day drunk." The brunette reaches over then and takes her hand seriously. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Elena," she assures her friend. "It's just a little weird that's all. You know, letting someone go when you've only just really got them. But Klaus has lots of work do in the personal growth department and I have a busy life planned so I'm ready to get on with it"

She doesn't know if her friend picks up on the manic determinedness in the set of her jaw or not. If Elena sees how close she is to cracking or how wild with doubt she is then her friend is wise enough to let it go. "Great."

Elena flashes over to the mini fridge and returns with two bottles of cheap beer, "hey" the brunette defends at her skeptical look. "We can get a little day drunk too."

She takes a bottle and lets out a short rueful laugh before gratefully chugging down a few hefty swallows and wishing for something stronger.

"I know it's hard," Elena says carefully. "But I think you're doing the right thing."

"I am," she nods determinedly. "Klaus comes with so much drama, I can't do college and a career and deal with him and his crazy ass family. And hey, it's not like we're getting any older is it?"

Elena gives a small smile. "It's pretty amazing that he's willing to wait." She says supportively. Elena truly is the best of them. Even after everything Klaus has done to her she's still willing too try and give credit where it's due. "He's really crazy about you"

"He really is," she agrees with no small amount of wonder in her voice.

"So here's to-" Elena holds her bottle up in a toast. "Making the most of patient boyfriends."

She laughs and clinks their bottles together. Elena looks pleased with her improving mood and continues. "You, Caroline Forbes, get your dream life. You get to ace college, and get a kick ass career and see the world safe in the knowledge that your hot, if psychotic, boyfriend is waiting for you"

She almost laughs again but somehow she gets stuck in Elena's vision of her future somewhere around the seeing the world part and she just can't take anymore of this madness.

"No" she says and shakes her head. "No"

"Care?"

"No Elena" she shakes her head again at her own foolishness. How could she have thought this was an even remotely acceptable situation? "What the hell am I thinking?"

Elena just looks confused so she continues. "I've been so tied up in the idea that I could have him and still have this life that I didn't stop to even consider if that's what I wanted."

"Isn't it what you want?" Elena asks, surprised and at least two steps behind her as her mind cartwheels wildly forward towards a very different vision of the next fifty years.

"No, seriously? Why would I want to cut the man I love out of my life for decades? That's insane." Both hands run roughly through her own hair as she speaks and she feels like she can't contain the energy, the excitement, of this revelation inside her body. "Why would I want to see the world without him?"

"You love him?" Elena asks in a shocked tone and she realises she hasn't been honest about that with anyone, not Elena or Bonnie, not even with herself until this morning.

"I do." she grabs her keys off the bedside table and shoots her friend a joyful liberated smile. "I gotta go, get the notes from history for me"

Just as she guessed he's sitting at the bar with Damon and Stefan. A bottle of the Grill's most expensive bourbon sits in front of the Slavatore boys and before him a bottle of the Talisker that a place like this would never have stocked had Klaus' little brother not years ago compelled the manager to ensure there was always a bottle on the top shelf.

Damon is giving Klaus some advice she's sure the Hybrid would sooner choke on than take regarding the ongoing unrest in New Orleans and Stefan is staring uncomfortably into his drink with the air of a man who would sooner be anywhere else.

"Well I'll bear it in mind" Klaus says sardonically and pours himself another measure of whiskey that he throws back in one go. He reaches for the bottle again with jerky movements and she realises for the first time how hard this is on him too. Her invisible Hybrid, her patient lover, how could she not have seen the heartbreak underneath his sacrifice?

"Klaus" she whispers and the three vampire's turn as one to look at her.

"Caroline?" he's on his feet and over to her as fast as he can move without drawing the attention of the Grill's human patrons. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Worry animates every inch of his body and his eyes check her over for damage.

"I'm fine" she assures him. "I'm pretty dumb, but other than that I'm fine"

Over his shoulder she can see Damon not even pretending he isn't eves dropping and she shoots the handsome vampire an annoyed look that he responds to with a shrug and an unapologetic smile.

"Let's talk outside" she huffs and shoots Damon one more withering look as she leads the original out of the grill.

"Caroline" he begins but she raises a hand to silence him and sits down on the same bench where he'd once turned his sparkling charm on her and challenged her to get to know him. She knows him now, all his damage and demons, all his wickedness and duplicity. But she also knows his love, his playfulness and his savage devotion.

"Ok" she takes a deep breath and readies herself to turn all her carefully laid plans and expectations upside down. "I have my future all mapped out. I'm going to go to college, study hard, get a great career and see the world. Just like I told you I have things that I want"

His face twitches with annoyance spread thinly over hurt. "And I am endeavoring to allow you those things."

"I know" she studies her own hands carefully. "I know you said you'd wait and I appreciate it, I do, but-" she takes a deep shaky breath "-but it's not what I want"

Through his hardening eyes she sees his heart close up and she hates it. Centuries of being unloved and he has come to believe that he is truly unlovable. "Klaus" she tries to reach for him but he jerks his head away from her searching fingers.

He stands and gestures angrily at her with an upturned palm. "Not an hour back in the bosom of your friends and already your mind is changed?" he swallows down his hurt, buries it deep in the anger that has shielded him for a thousand years. "Tell me Caroline what did they say to you that-"

"Seriously?" she snaps. She is compassionate at her heart but she has never claimed to be patient. "Jesus let a girl finish before your abandonment issues come out to play. God"

She stands too and steps towards him and he leans back on his heels watchfully and waits while she huffs out an annoyed breath and gathers herself.

"I still want all the things I always wanted." she takes a step closer and he couldn't be leaning further back without toppling backward and landing on his insecure ass so she snakes her hands around his neck and pulls his head down until their foreheads touch. "And all of those things, do you hear me? All of them involve you"

"Caroline?" he's not ready to drop his armour just yet and her own name hits her ears rough and mistrusted

"I want to call you to whine about my classes and bore you with all my college drama. I want you there at my graduation and to tell me to calm down when I'm freaking out over job interviews."

He relaxes slightly, and his guard falters. So she kisses him briefly and continues. "I want to help you plan Hope's birthday parties and I want to be there when she first tells you to shove your authority over some dumb boy she wants to date. I don't want college romance and I don't want you to date other women and sure as hell don't want to see the world without you"

His hands run up her arms and into the hairline at either side of her neck. "Caroline, love, are you sure?" she leans into his touch as he speaks and closes her eyes to shut out his doubts. She knows what he's thinking. He's afraid that if she doesn't take this chance now, she'll regret it and eventually she'll blame him for that. He overestimates her desire for normalcy and he underestimates her desire for him.

She opens her eyes and meets his determinedly. "I'm sure," she tells him. "You might be as old and as patient as the hills but I'm not."

She shimmies closer, her body brushing invitingly against his. "I'm a twenty first century girl. I want it all and I want it right now. So get in your car and head back to your kingdom and your daughter. But tonight you call me and tomorrow I call you."

He tilts his head and a smile tugs at one side of his pretty mouth making it impossible to resist kissing him lightly on his full lower lip. "We'll collect frequent flyer miles and do the long distance thing for a couple of years and then we'll take Hope and the rest of your freaky family and we'll go see the world."

He smiles, blinding her with relief and gorgeous dimples and she grins back at him. "Deal?"

He answers with a kiss and she knows there'll be no backing out now. So she's in it, for real, for good, and she better enjoy it because it sure as hell isn't going to be easy.

"My love" he whispers against her lips and she sucks the words into her mouth to taste them on her tongue

"My love" she responds decisively because finally after all the struggle and denial that's exactly what he is.


	17. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

 **For Worse**

Elena strolls into their dorm room just as she hangs up on Cami. Her expression must show how troubled she is because Elena's demeanour shifts instantly from relaxed to concerned.

"Caroline?" the brunette asks. "Are you ok? What's going on?"

"I gotta go" she grabs her bag and looks around from her keys.

"Really?" Elena whines. "But I thought we were going to the party tonight"

"Sorry" she takes a moment to give her friend a proper explanation. "That was Cami, there's drama in NOLA. Esther's crazed witch sister is gunning for Hope and Klaus has gone off the deep end. He tried to shake up the wolves by claiming some murder he didn't do and so Elijah, in his brotherly wisdom, daggered him."

"Oh" Elena looks dumbfounded and she can't blame her friend. Life with the Mikaelsons is a never-ending series of life or death madness that makes even Mystic Falls' track record of death and destruction look sedate.

"Yeah" she gives a rueful half smile to let Elena know that she's okay with the crazy. "So they are up one psycho witch and down one unkillable hybrid and I have to be there to make them pull the dagger out and to stop Klaus slaughtering the entire population of Louisiana when they do."

Elena pulls a face. "Care it's not safe"

"Nothing's safe Elena, not at home, not here, not in New Orleans and certainly not anywhere near my boyfriend." She shrugs, she made her bed and apparently there's not just hot hybrid sex to be had in it. There's also danger, mayhem and the whole damn original family. Not in the actual bed, that would be a bit kinky. She halts her derailed thought process and catches up with Elena's barrage of worried questions.

"Honesty I don't know Elena" she admits. "Cami just kinda threw up the Bat Signal and I gotta go be a hero. I guess I'll figure it out when I get there."

"Care. Please stop" Elena's voice rises to stop her hurrying away and she slams on the brakes a little impatiently. "I know he's your boyfriend and everything but Klaus is a maniac. If Elijah daggered him do you really think even you'll be able to get through to him. He'll be furious"

She sighs, it's hard to explain to her friends, to any sane person she supposes, how deeply she has embraced her role in his life. Yes he's a lunatic and a sociopath and everything else that other people see, but he's more than that too or at least with her he can be. She is his sanity, his tether to something beyond his own anger and it's his faith in her that tells her she's strong enough to bear that burden.

Does she think she can get through to him when he's at his worst? Yeah she actually does. She's the angel on his shoulder, the keeper of his conscience. She's his once in a millennium girl and he'll listen, she'll make sure of it.

"I know he is and he will be, like you say, furious. If I don't go God knows what he'll do. But I can handle Klaus Elena, and if he's thinking straight he can handle anything up to and including psychopathic blood relations."

Elena looks doubtful so she hugs her fiercely and speaks into her ear. "Trust me, I got this"

When they part Elena nods with concerned acceptance and she goes in a flash of blonde determination and fiery devotion to save the day and the man she loves. For better or worse, that's the vow people make isn't it. And no they're not married but she certainly feels like she made that vow herself somewhere along the line.

The night sky passes blackly past the plane's windows and she wonders how much worse it can get before they see any of the better she's hopping for. She imagines the answer to that is a hell of a lot worse. She thinks of him daggered and can't work up much sympathy despite how much she loves him, he has had it coming for a thousand years after all. Which is something she'll be sure to remind him of when he wakes up with bloody retribution on his mind.

No doubt his plans to stop Dahlia already involved no small amount of sacrifice from his family and their betrayal will only fuel his recklessness with their lives and happiness. So she'll take a bit of that Mystic Falls morality with her to New Orleans and make him find another way.

 **For better**

"Oh god" Bonnie stumbles backward out of the dorm almost felling Elena in her haste to flee the room. "Ewwwww"

"Bonnie what's wrong?" Elena's concerned voice floats in through the half open door.

"Sorry" she calls out. "Hang on guys. Two minutes. Sorry, sorry"

Beside her Klaus rolls on to his back and laughs a deep throaty, sinfully sexy, laugh. "Shut up" she snaps at him as she scrambles for her clothes. "Jees get dressed you asshole"

"We can go Care" Elena calls awkwardly.

"Yeah" agrees Bonnie with overplayed horror. "I need to go get my eyes disinfected anyway"

"No, no" she calls back. "Klaus seriously clothes, now!" she hisses and hears Elena giggle awkwardly.

A moment later she pulls open the door and gives her friends an embarrassed smile. "I thought you guys went out"

"We did." Bonnie huffs as she pushes past her and glowers at Klaus who's reclining shirtless and unembarrassed on her bed. "Five hours ago"

The hybrid gives Bonnie a conceited look and lifts his eyebrows, making the witch's lips curl in disgust as she shoves some beers into the mini fridge alongside her friends' blood bags.

"Sorry guys" she apologises again and tries not to smile at Klaus' wicked wink in her direction.

"You're not sorry at all." Bonnie mutters to herself and pulls three blood bags from the fridge. She hands one to each of her friends and hurls the other at Klaus's head. He catches it one handed and bears his twin fangs at the witch who narrows her eyes in return.

Klaus growls and she can tell from Bonnie's smirk that she's just burst a few blood vessels in his brain.

"Oh-kay" she intercedes before things turn nasty, smiling at Bonnie and laying her hand on the distractingly smooth skin of Klaus' tense shoulder. "Who wants alcohol?"

In the bar she puts herself and Elena between the witch and the hybrid and the two of them valiantly manage to keep all out war from breaking out. When Damon joins them later he relishes drawing Bonnie's more good-natured fire and Klaus goes quiet beside her.

Eventually she casts a curious glance over to see what he's doing and find's him immersed in scribbling on the back of one of the flyers that always litter these trendy student bars. His dexterous artist fingers move in skillful strokes and despite his medium being a sharpie and cheap printer paper she knows the image will be striking. She preens a little; her artist boyfriend, sketching her in a college bar, it's so hip she can't believe it's really her life.

But when she leans over to take a peek it's not her he's drawn, it's Bonnie and she laughs out loud. He's captured the witch perfectly, jaw set, judgment radiating form every line of her pretty face. He pushes the sketch to Bonnie and it's obvious her friend can't tell if it's a peace offering or a jibe. A back handed compliment or insult shrouded regard. Still what woman can resist being immortalised by talented hands and Bonnie stares, transfixed, at her own hard beauty.

Bonnie'll keep the picture just as she did once herself even when Klaus was the enemy and her attraction to him didn't go any deeper than his handsome skin.

It goes deeper now. She snuggles against his warm hard body and tips her head up to kiss him on the line of his jaw as he signals the waitress for another bottle of scotch and he turns curiously to look into her eyes. She doesn't usually show such affection in front of her friends but today she feels all loved up and hopeful.

Just a month ago she brought him back from the brink of a monumental self-destruction in his fight against Dahlia. She's pretty pleased with herself, and pretty pissed that she can't let Rebekah and Elijah know just how much they owe her without revealing the extent of what he had planed for them.

So she holds it, like a secret treasure, too herself and marvels at the irrefutable evidence that even when things are at their worst they, together, can overcome them. She changes him, makes him better, makes him stop and think and temper his rage. He changes her too, makes her bend where once she was inflexible and understand where once she judged.

She kisses his lips, her fingers on his cheek to hold him gently in place and Bonnie groans. "Come on Care, I saw more than enough of you two at the dorm, please don't make me relive it"

Klaus gaze turns irritated. "You sound a little jealous witch" he smirks nastily. "Oh yes your hunter toy-boy buggered off didn't he? Perhaps you didn't satisfy him." He turns his infuriating arrogant smile on her. "Maybe you should give her some tips sweetheart"

The playful punch she lands on his arm carries enough force to smash through concrete but it only rocks him a fraction of an inch and he smirks as she chides him affectionately. "Don't be an ass."

He shrugs unrepentantly and she stands and pulls him to his feet. "We gotta go anyway guys, big day tomorrow"

"Oh yes" Elena rummages in her bag and pulls out a brightly wrapped present that she hands to Klaus who doesn't seem to know what to do with it. "I put the receipt inside in case she has one like it" Elena says awkwardly when Klaus just stares dumbly at the jolly pattern of bright balloons on the paper.

"Thanks Elena" she fills the silence. "That's so thoughtful" she adds with a pointed look at Klaus who simply nods to the doppleganger and throws and arm around her shoulder to lead her away.

"We usually say thank you," she teases when they're out of earshot. "Try it after me; thank you"

"Ha-bloody-ha" he gripes and fingers the gift, he's not very good with normal human interactions. He'll no doubt be smooth enough at Hope's party tomorrow though, turn on that glimmering charm of his and dazzle his guests and her too.

She'll always be a sucker for it she imagines and she's ok with being slightly smitten with the illusion of easy conceit that he projects. She knows him better, knows him deep down beneath his power and paranoia, beneath his wit and charm, deep in his centre where he is fragile and loving. Buried deep it's true but there nonetheless and all hers.

At the airport they drink nasty coffee and she leans against him fiddling with her phone while he reads the booker prize winner she brought along and complains about the state of modern literature.

"You're just old," she says snatching the book. "Stop reading it if you hate it so much"

"It's self indulgent drivel" he insists taking the book back. "All post modern angst and no bloody substance"

"Why are you reading it then?" she huffs turning back to her phone

"Because you have a paper on it," he says without looking at her as he turns back to his page.

"And so you need to read it why?" she asks tugging it from his hands and giving him a haughty reprimanding look.

"So I can help you." He looks confused by her pique. He probably doesn't even realise how patronising he can be.

"Seriously? I so don't need help" she glowers at him as he tires to grab the book again.

"You sure about that sweetheart?" he retorts his own irritation rising to meet hers. "You're barely averaging a B and-"

"My assignment, my problem." She snaps and when he tries once more to take the book she hurls it petulantly across the terminal. "You can't be in control of everything. God can't I just do college without you trying to manipulate everything"

His eyes narrow and his jaw sets for only an instant then the tension in his lips suddenly changes and she can see him hold back a smile. "Don't be angry love" he steps towards her and coaxes her arms away from her sides so he can slip his arms around her waist and kiss her neck. "You can't blame me for wanting to help you do your best"

"I can and I do" she retorts but the anger has gone from her tone in spite of herself and her head tilts to allow him better access to the sensitive skin over her jugular. "And stop that" she adds half heartedly

"Whatever you say love" he murmurs against her throat and steps back. She can tell from his self-satisfied smirk that the feeling of lustful disorientation that took her for a moment as he moved away was evident on her face.

"Dick" she mutters affectionately and goes to retrieve her book.

They settle back on the uncomfortable bench and she leans against him again and glances at the flight board, 'delayed' it reads in cheerful red lights. She huffs loudly and passes the book to him over her head without looking at him. "Go on then" she demands. "Read it to me"

He chuckles and starts to read and she lets his voice caress her as her thumbs absently caress the back of his free hand that lies across her belly.

She doesn't hear the words, she'll have to re-read the chapters before she tackles her assignment, she just hears the formless cadence of his voice moving over her; soft and sensuous as a lover. His body feels hot and firm at her back and her mind drifts to the hours they spent together in her dorm before scarring Bonnie for life with a peek at the show, her body follows and his rhythm falters as she hears him inhale through his nose.

His arm tightens fractionally about her and the circling of her thumbs ceases to be a mindless motion as her awakening body focuses on that tiny repetitious caress making it feel sensuous and illicit in the half empty terminal.

After a few long heavy moments his thumb begins to move back and forth along the underside of her breast and she can barely make out a word he's saying. They do it in a cubicle in the ladies, fast and cheap and sexy, her fangs in his shoulder to keep from screaming out and he gripes about her ruining his shirt.

On the plane they drink gin and tonic and somehow he ends up telling her the old Norse legends he heard as a boy and she wonders how long it will take her to get used to just how old he is. Once they've lived another thousand years she imagines the age difference won't seem so vast.

She snorts and he breaks in his tale and looks quizzically at her. "Something funny love" he asks.

"No, I just can't believe I'm now planning my future in millennia" she huffs again, snuggles against him and grins to make sure he'll get that he's being teased. "Millennia with you. Jees, where did it all go wrong?"

He takes her chin in his hand and smiles a slow contented smile. He doesn't rise to her playful baiting, she has after all just unintentionally promised him eternity. "Thank you" he murmurs and suddenly there's a lump in her throat and wetness threatening her eyes at his sincerity. "Always"

"Your welcome" she replies softly. "Always"

They hold each other's gazes until she has to speak again or she might let a tear fall. "For better or for worse then I guess," she says with a crooked playful smile that he returns in kind.

He grins and clinks his glass to hers. "For better or for worse then"

~FIN~

 **A/N So i'm done with this one. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave me a little review if you can be arsed 191 :-P**

 **I've got a couple of other klaroline fics up, check them out if you liked this one.**

 **And to my lovely reviews particularly** **Austennerdita2533** **,** **Hellzz-on-Earth** **,** **rebbecca1** **,** **EloiseLawrence18** **,** **Jasper'sGoddessofWar** **,** **Carolineforbesisawsome** **,** **worldwarIII** **who reviewed almost every chapter thank you so much xxxx**

 **So long and Thanks for all the fish**


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